RCSI Alumni Magazine 2019

ALUMNI AWARDS

GLOBAL GLO GL O BAL

HEALTHCARE LEADERS

A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E 2019

RCSI

KEEP IN TOUCH @RCSIAlumni

rcsi.ie/alumni

RCSI

RCSI Alumni

RCSIAlumni

MORE THAN 19,000 ALUMNI WORLDWIDE +353 1 402 2523

alumni@rcsi.ie

LETTER TO ALUMNI

WELCOME

Aíne Gibbons

R

CSI honoured six distinguished alumni at the inaugural 2019 Alumni Awards ceremony on 22 March. These notable graduates of the College appear on the cover of this magazine and you can read more about their individual achievements on page 8. While they shared the spotlight on the night of the Awards, each awardee has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their own field, and has enhanced the reputation of the College for their contributions to medicine, research and healthcare all over the world. Nominations for awards are made by fellow alumni of the College and many alumni gathered to celebrate with the awardees and their families. It is on such significant occasions that I am reminded of the fact that graduation is not goodbye at RCSI – we welcome all alumni back not just to celebrations such as this but to join us for class reunions, lectures and other special events. Please do make sure we have your contact details (see opposite page) to keep you informed of alumni activities and opportunities to connect with fellow peers/classmates.

In other features, we look at how the first cohort of Physician’s Associates are faring since their graduation last year (page 28), we track those RCSI alumni who are leaders in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology worldwide (page 41), and we talk to GPs on the ground about the challenges facing them (page 17).

We look back at RCSI alumni events on campus and elsewhere, and at RCSI’s many links with rugby, both through players and performances and with research into rugby-related injuries (page 14).

We are in the process of recruiting the inaugural O'Brien Chair in Global Surgery and the inaugural Chair in Simulation, both of which have the potential to be groundbreaking and far-reaching in their impact. Following a rise in Alumni participation, I am reminded of the energising impact of alumni gifts. A gift from an individual or from a group, can be a significant boost for the institution, having the effect of speeding up initiatives and consolidating goal-setting as well as demonstrating an immediate and direct benefit. It also has the effect of raising expectations at all levels and on all fronts: how can we aspire to do more in our mission for RCSI to lead the world to better health.

We hope you enjoy the magazine and that it encourages you to keep in touch.

AÍNE GIBBONS DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT – ALUMNI RELATIONS, FELLOWS & MEMBERS

NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

I am delighted to announce that the nominations for the 2020 RCSI Alumni Awards, which will take place in spring of next year, are now open! The Alumni Awards set out to celebrate and honour the outstanding achievements of RCSI alumni, from all disciplines, who, as global healthcare professionals, are leading the world to better health. The nomination process involves all of us, from alumni to faculty to staff, to ensure both wide participation and its success. So spread the word and let us know who has inspired you.

Visit rcsi.ie/alumniawards to submit your nomination today.

PROTECTING YOUR DATA RCSI is committed to protecting your privacy. New laws governing how we manage your data and communicate with you have been introduced. To enable you to receive invitations for reunions, events and scientific conferences and to continue to stay in touch with classmates, please keep us informed of any changes to your details. You can update your information anytime online at rcsi.ie/alumni, by email to alumni@rcsi.ie or by calling the Alumni Office directly on +353 (0) 1 402 2523.

01

CONTENTS

26 DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE Alumna Dr Wan Azizah, Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister

30 A PICTURE’S WORTH Portraits of pioneers

28 CLOSELY ASSOCIATED The first cohort of PA graduates

INAUGURAL 2019 RCSI ALUMNI AWARDS

03 DOING THE ROUNDS Groundbreaking research announced at RCSI

For details, see page 8

IN THIS ISSUE

34 CAUGHT ON CAMPUS Grace O’Flanagan returns to the fold

03 Doing the Rounds

24 Second Strike

36 Class Call

08 Alumni Awardees 2019

26 A Doctor in the House

41 Labour Leaders

28 Closely Associated

44 Events At RCSI

News, campus updates and College happenings

Six exceptional alumni are honoured

12 Alumni Awards Ceremony Celebrating alumni achievements in style

14 Docs and Rucks The College’s rugby connections

17 Fit for the Future

A new dawn in general practice: we speak to alumni GPs

22 Research Highlights

RCSI research priorities and their clinical impact

A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E 2019

RCSI 2019

ALUMNI AWARDS

GLOBAL GLO GL O BAL

HEALTHCARE LEADERS

ON OUR COVER

Alumni Awardees 2019 (see page 8) Photographs by Conor Healy

02

Professor Leonie Young’s research into recurrent breast cancer

Alumna Dr Wan Azizah (Class of 1978) rises to the top of Malaysian politics

The first cohort of Physician Associates graduate

30 A Picture’s Worth

The Women on Walls project is unveiled

32 A Life’s Work

The story of Professor Rafik Gardee (Class of 1966)

34 Caught on Campus

Back in the fold: alumni encounters

RCSI ALUMNI MAGAZINE is published annually by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Issues are available online at rcsi.ie/alumni.

Your comments, ideas, updates and letters are welcome. Please contact Martha Carson, Alumni Relations Manager at RCSI, 123 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2; telephone: +353 (0) 1 402 5187; email: marthacarson@rcsi.ie.

RCSI ALUMNI MAGAZINE is POSTED ANNUALLY to alumni who we have listed on our database. To ensure you receive a copy, please PROVIDE YOUR CURRENT CONTACT DETAILS at rcsi.ie/alumni. RCSI ALUMNI MAGAZINE is produced by Gloss Publications Ltd, The Courtyard, 40 Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Copyright Gloss Publications.

RCSI Editorial Board: Aíne Gibbons, Sonia Lee Finnegan, Martha Carson, Louise Loughran and Jane Butler.

Alumni from all over the world check in

Global alumni in the field of Obs & Gynae

44 Reunions: Alumni Gathering 2018 46 Farewell Receptions 47 Annual Foley Lecture with Professor Carol S Dweck 48 In Conversation with …

Dr Hedy Fry 49 Boston Reception and the Sherlock Cup 2018 50 Bahrain Reception 51 Association of Medical and Dental Graduates Annual Dinner 52 Conferring Ceremonies 2018 56 House of Lords Reception

OUR HERITAGE RCSI was founded by Royal Charter in 1784 as the national training and professional body for surgery.

The College flourished from the very start and in 1810 moved to its present location on St Stephen’s Green. In 1978, RCSI became a recognised College of the National University of Ireland and in 2010, RCSI was granted by the State, the power to award its own degrees.

RCSI NEWS

DOING THE ROUNDS COLLEGE NEWS, ALUMNI UPDATES, RCSI IN THE COMMUNITY AND ACROSS CAMPUS …

RCSI students with Professor Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, RCSI; Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen TD; An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD; Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI; and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD.

NEW FUND, NEW PROJECT An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD and Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, announced 27 ground-breaking projects to share the first tranche of the €75m Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund at a special event in RCSI in December 2018. Professor Donal O'Shea, Head of Department of Chemistry, RCSI will lead one of the successfully funded projects.

Awarded €5.7m, this project aims to transform the diagnosis and surgical treatment of Gastro-Intestinal (GI) diseases, specifically cancer, and is being led by RCSI and Mater University Hospital, UCD in partnership with Deciphex Ltd and IBM Research.

l FutureNeuro, a €13.6m SFI Research Centre has been launched at RCSI. The centre aims to translate breakthroughs in understanding of brain structure and function to transform the patient journey for people with neurological diseases.

Visit futureneurocentre.ie Professor Orla Hardiman, Consultant Neurologist & FutureNeuro Principal Investigator; Professor David Henshall, Professor of Molecular Physiology & Neuroscience, RCSI and Centre Director for FutureNeuro; and Jack Banks, PhD student at the FutureNeuro Centre.

RCSI Maintains Position in Top 250

RCSI has been ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the 2019 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings announced in September 2018. RCSI has maintained its worldwide position in the #201- 250 category and ranks second out of nine institutions in the Republic of Ireland.

RCSI’s performance in the rankings is linked in particular to its continued strength in the citations pillar, with a field-weighted citation impact that is the highest in Ireland and twice the world average. These indicators provide a strong evidence base for RCSI’s impactful research in translational health sciences in areas including cancer, neuroscience, population health and health services, regenerative medicine, surgical science and practice and vascular biology.

Malaysia Update

RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC – formerly Penang Medical College, PMC) was officially launched in September 2018 by then Minister Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Education and Skills.

The institution’s upgrade to Foreign University Branch Campus was approved by the Malaysian MOE in March this year with its full name Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD) Malaysia Campus.

Professor Stephen Doughty, President, RUMC said, “As we celebrate this momentous achievement as the first of many RUMC milestones, we know that we are building upon more than 20 years of PMC’s high quality Irish education delivery. We continue to support the development of healthcare in Malaysia and were delighted to recently sign a MoU with the Ministry of Health to establish a new pathway for Family Medicine training for doctors in Malaysia.”

03

RCSI Honours Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has been awarded the Emily Winifred Dickson Award from RCSI. Emily Winifred Dickson broke boundaries when she became a Fellow of RCSI in 1893, making her the first female Fellow of any of the surgical royal colleges in Britain and Ireland. RCSI established the Emily Winifred Dickson Award in honour of the achievements of this pioneering woman. The award recognises women who have made an outstanding contribution to their field.

Professor Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI.

BAHRAIN NEWS

The winning RCSI project team, from IT and Surgical Affairs.

Emergency Medicine RCSI's National Emergency Medicine Programme has been awarded a prestigious Global PMI Award for Project Excellence.

The award, which recognises complex projects that deliver superior performance of project management practices and positive impacts on society, was presented at the PMI Professional Awards Gala in Los Angeles.

Over 350 children, aged between 4 - 10, brought their sick or injured teddies to the fifth annual RCSI Teddy Bear Hospital in February 2019.

04

Three alumni portraits, now proudly hung on the new ‘Inspiring Excellence’ wall at RCSI Bahrain, were unveiled at the RCSI Reception in Bahrain in November 2018 (photographs on page 50). Asma AlNajjar, Eman AlJahmi (both School of Nursing & Midwifery, 2010) and Aymen Bukannan (Medicine, 2010) were selected by the panel as being distinguished graduates and offering inspiration to students, alumni and visitors to RCSI Bahrain.

Dr Kate Coleman Awarded RCSI Leadership Medal 1985 Medicine alumna, Dr Kate Coleman, Consultant Ophthalmologic Surgeon and founder of Right to Sight, was awarded a Leadership Medal

by RCSI in honour of her work to eliminate preventable blindness globally which has restored the eyesight of over half a million people.

Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI, said: “I am delighted to present Dr Coleman with the RCSI Leadership Medal today in honour of her work to eliminate preventable blindness globally. Dr Coleman’s extraordinary determination to save people from needless blindness drove her to resolve problems which many believed were unsolvable.

The impact of her work is profound, directly improving the quality of life of over a million people and their families. I am so proud that RCSI is associated with such a significant healthcare leader.”

l To mark World Sepsis Day in September, RCSI led a campaign which saw landmark buildings in Ireland turn pink to raise awareness of sepsis, a silent killer associated with seven deaths per day in Irish hospitals.

RCSI NEWS

RCSI recognises the importance of diversity and cultural competence in healthcare through its annual student International Citizenship Awards.

Rugby Research RCSI and the IRFU Charitable Trust have launched a partnership to advance research in Irish rugby, with the support of the AMBER SFI Research Centre for Materials Science, Leinster Schools Rugby and World Rugby. The lead researchers on the studies are Professor Fergal O’Brien, Professor of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine, RCSI, as well as Dr Helen French and Louise Keating from the RCSI School of Physiotherapy.

Former rugby internationals Tommy Bowe and Leo Cullen with John Callaghan, Chairman, IRFU Charitable Trust, and Professor Fergal O’Brien.

AN AWARD FOR 26 YORK STREET

RCSI HOSTS WOMEN IN SURGERY MEETING

The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) announced RCSI᾿s 26 York Street, designed by Henry J Lyons, as the winner of the Public Choice category at the RIAI Irish Architecture Awards 2018 – receiving more than 20 per cent of the votes.

DONAL MURPHY PHOTOGRAPHY

In July 2018, RCSI hosted the first Women in Surgery meeting to take place in Ireland. The Women in Surgery meeting focused on the experience and evolution of gender equality in surgery in the United States, Ireland and Africa. The Association of Women Surgeons held the first Women in Surgery meeting in the United States in 1981 and now has 2,000 members across 21 countries.

Culture Night 2018: Frank Donegan, Head Porter, RCSI overseeing proceedings in the Council Chamber.

HONORARY DOCTORATE AWARD Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, whose pioneering research is concerned with the elucidation of the mechanisms underlying obesity, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes and the translation of those discoveries into improved patient care outcomes, was awarded an RCSI Honorary Doctorate in November 2018.

Clinical Pharmacy RCSI President, Mr Kenneth Mealy and RCSI Chief Executive, Professor Cathal Kelly have signed a transnational collaborative agreement with Professor Sidong Xiong, President of Soochow University, and Professor Xuechu Zhen, Dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China for the delivery of a joint programme in clinical pharmacy.

This programme, the first of its type for pharmacy in Ireland, will see students spend the first two years of their studies at Soochow University, with two modules led and delivered by RCSI faculty at Soochow University. Students will then have the option to transfer to RCSI Dublin to complete a further two years of study with a more specific focus on clinical pharmacy.

At the end of their four years of study, students will be awarded dual degrees from RCSI and Soochow University.

l Intergenerational Day at RCSI. RCSI hosted a day of workshops, seminars and lab visits celebrating learning and discovery at all stages of life during Positive Ageing Week 2018.

05

€345,000 RCSI NEWS

Fulbright Irish Awardees

An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney TD, and Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, Mr Reece Smyth, have announced the Fulbright Irish Awardees for 2018-2019, with four of the awards being made to RCSI. The recipients were presented with their awards at a ceremony at the US Ambassador’s Residence in the Phoenix Park. The Fulbright Awards will enable students, academics and professionals from HEIs in Ireland and Europe to go to leading US institutions to study and collaborate with experts in their fields.

Over the past 12 months RCSI alumni and friends donated €345,000 to support student programmes across the College.

THANK YOU

ALUMNI RCSI Athena SWAN Action Group

POSITIVE GENDER PRACTICE AT RCSI EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES RCSI has been awarded Athena SWAN Bronze accreditation for positive gender practice in higher education. The award follows an assessment of gender equality in RCSI’s policies, practices and structures, and it recognises RCSI’s commitment to ensuring that students were given the gender equality is embedded across the institution. opportunity to enrich their

CLINICAL ELECTIVES

23 13

students had an UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE thanks to the generosity of alumni. l Photographer Amelia Stein is the

RCSI Fulbright Awardees, Cian O'Leary, Michelle Flood, Olga Piskareva, and Fergal O'Shaughnessy.

winner of the 2018 RCSI Art Award.

Now in its third year, the RCSI Art Award was established to celebrate the common heritage of RCSI and the RHA and the long-standing association students were awarded between art, medicine and wellbeing.

SCHOLARSHIPS

12

scholarships in 2017 thanks to alumni gifts. Our range of scholarships offer SURGE OR support to students who SCOURGE excel academically and are passionate about Bharti Kewlani (Class of 2020), recipient a lifelong career in medicine. of the Arthur Stephen ffrenchdeveloping O'Carroll

training by gaining valuable experience in teaching hospitals worldwide.

RESEARCH SUMMER SCHOOL students were able to participate in the summer school which provides the opportunity to work alongside NEW SKIN WOUNDS ANDPrincipal Investigators and gain truly valuable TRAUMA RESEARCH CENTRE A new research specialising in experience in acentre clinical and laboratory wound healing and tissue repair has been setting.

53

Medal, awarded at the annual Biological Society meeting for best surgical undergraduate essay, explores the positive impact of social media on This fund is a much needed life-line for students education and research. Read in full who find themselves in unforeseen financial rcsi.ie/alumninews

STUDENT HARDSHIP

difficulty during their studies. Gifts from alumni over the last year have ensured that these students have been able to continue their studies at RCSI.

launched by RCSI. The Skin Wounds and Trauma (SWaT) Research Centre, led by the RCSI School of Nursing & Midwifery, will have a particular focus on pressure ulcer prevention and management.

Open Day for Schools

More than 800 students from second-level schools AND THERE’S MORE… IN 2017 ALONE ALUMNI throughout Ireland explored RCSI's state-of-theat 26 York Street while learning about RAISED FUNDS FOR A FURTHER 6 NEWartlife facilities SCHOLARSHIPS! as a medical, pharmacy and physiotherapy Dr Tom O'Connor, SWaT Lead Researcher; Professor Zena Moore, SWaT Director; Simone Walsh, Senior Research Projects Manager; and Dr Declan Patton, SWaT Deputy Director.

Bharti Kewlani and Mr Paul ffrench O’Carroll

student at the RCSI Open Day 2019.

If you would like to support student programmes at RCSI you can do so by visiting donate.rcsi.ie.

If you are a donor from the USA visit friendsofrcsi.com.

06

OR call Paul in the Alumni Office on +353

(0) 1 402 2729, he would be delighted to hear from you.

OLYMPUS IRELAND Supporting Irish Surgical Training To register you interest in attending an Olympus Surgical Training course, speak to one of our territory managers or contact info@olympus.ie

KeyMed House, Unit G8, Calmount Business Park, Ballymount, Dublin 12

Follow us on Twitter @OlympusMedUKIE www.olympus.co.uk/medical

ALUMNI AWARDS

2019

AWARDEES A celebration of our achievements

The Inaugural 2019 RCSI Alumni Awards, held in College Hall on Friday 22 March, celebrated and honoured the outstanding achievements of RCSI alumni who, as global healthcare professionals, are leading the world to better health

M

08

NOMINATIONS

NOW OPEN visit rcsi.ie/alumniawards Dr Kelly Aylward, Ms Avril Copeland, Dr Daniel Briscoe, Dr Emer Shanley, Ms Fatima Rustom and Mr Martin Dunne at the Award ceremony

are extremely proud of our six extraordinary Awardees who truly are leading the world to better health. These distinguished individuals have made enduring contributions to the improvement of human health and are united by their time spent in RCSI. We now look forward to receiving the nominations for the 2020 RCSI Alumni Awards.”

PHOTOS: CONOR HEALY

ore than 100 alumni, faculty and guests attended the Inaugural Awards ceremony where six exceptional RCSI role models, whose lives and careers inspired us, were honoured. Read more about each awardee in the pages that follow.

Representing the diversity of RCSI, our six Awardees were selected from each of the following Schools: Medicine; Physiotherapy; Pharmacy; Nursing & Midwifery; Postgraduate Studies and the Institute of Leadership.

During the selection process, all 19,000 alumni were invited to participate by nominating their classmates and peers. Written submissions were then assessed by a panel of judges led by RCSI Chief Executive Professor Cathal Kelly, Dean Hannah McGee and including Professor Arnold Hill (Medicine), Professor Frances Horgan (Physiotherapy), Professor Brian Kirby, (Pharmacy), Professor Zena Moore (Nursing and Midwifery), Professor Niamh Moran (Postgraduate Studies), Professor Ciarán O’Boyle (Institute of Leadership).

The Awardees, from each of the Schools, demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their own field, which have not only made significant contributions to patient welfare and the business of healthcare but also enhanced the reputation of the College worldwide.

Aíne Gibbons, Director, Development – Alumni Relations, RCSI said: “We

S

N

NEWS

School of Medicine Awardee

School of Physiotherapy Awardee

DR DANIEL BRISCOE

MS FATIMA RUSTOM

MS AVRIL COPELAND

CLASS OF 1987

CLASS OF 2010

Ophthalmologist, Emek Hospital Dr Daniel Briscoe, from the well-known Dublin family, runs one of the largest Oculoplastic Orbital surgical services in Israel and the largest ophthalmology residency programme in Northern Israel. Last year, he was elected as a member of the International Orbital Society, considered the most prestigious society in the field of Orbital Surgery with only 30 members worldwide. Election is based on a recognised clinical and academic reputation and is by invitation only. Daniel is the first Irishman (the first Israeli also) and the first RCSI graduate to be elected to Society membership in its 42 years of existence. Daniel is Ophthalmology Department Chairman at Emek Hospital in Northern Israel, and Senior Lecturer at the Technion School of Medicine in Haifa. He was Head of the Israeli Society of Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Surgery twice, and has trained Ophthalmologists in Oculoplastic Surgery from Greece, Burma, Turkey, Mexico and China in his fellowship programme. He served on the International Council of Ophthalmology, Subspecialty Curriculum Taskforce Committee, and the Israeli Scientific Council Board for Professional Examinations. Daniel also works with holocaust survivors. Daniel’s wife Nava, who accompanied him to the Alumni Awards dinner along with other family members, is Israeli but has Irish citizenship, and they have three children one of whom is studying medicine. In 2018, Daniel started a Whatsapp group with his Class of 1987: ”We continue to be connected, there are conversations every day.”

Ms Avril Copeland graduated from RCSI School of Physiotherapy in 2010 and worked at Beaumont Hospital where she developed her idea to use technology to support patient rehabilitation remotely. As CEO of Innerstrength, a Dublin-based healthtech firm, she has developed a secure web-based platform for health professionals to provide personalised programmes of education, exercise and support to patients who are at risk, recently diagnosed or currently living with a chronic condition.

TickerFit, the company’s first product, enables health professionals to prescribe, educate and monitor a heart patient’s recovery from a distance via its secure platform and integrated wearable devices. TickerFit is being used in both primary and secondary care. Most recently, Innerstrength was selected for the NHS Test Bed programme and is currently working with its partners, St. Bart’s, London, Care City and The Nuffield Trust to develop and evaluate a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation pathway for patients living with heart failure.

Avril has always been involved in sport, representing Ireland in both hockey and expedition adventure racing, with her most recent achievement competing for Ireland at the Adventure Racing Championships, through the Andes and Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador.

Avril’s focus is now firmly on building a great company and products that make a difference. She was recognised with an Alumni Award for her spirit of entrepreneurship and her endeavours to create better outcomes for patients. She was joined at the Alumni Awards by her family.

Country of Residence: Israel Professional Title: Consultant

School of Pharmacy Awardee

Country of Residence: Ireland Professional Title: CEO of Innerstrength

CLASS OF 2008, MSC 2013 Country of Residence: Qatar Professional Title: Pharmacy Director of the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) Ms Fatima Rustom obtained her BSc Pharmacy from RCSI in 2008 and Healthcare Management masters degree from RCSI, Dubai in 2013. She was appointed Pharmacy Director at the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) in Qatar in 2018, an organisation dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. CDC is a member hospital belonging to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the largest healthcare provider in Qatar. Fatima has experience in a number of areas including assistant pharmacy director experience at the Heart Hospital, another specialist tertiary hospital committed to delivering high-quality care in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.

She also gained hospital pharmacist experience at the National Centre for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR), another HMC member specialist tertiary hospital. She also played an important role in the establishment of the medication safety and quality, pharmacy automation and informatics programmes at the Heart Hospital pharmacy department.

Fatima played a key role in the planning and implementation of the first complete automated pharmacy dispensing system in Qatar. She also participated as a pharmacy subject matter expert for designing and testing the electronic Clinical Information System at the corporate level and as a change manager for the project’s implementation at the hospital level. Her return to Dublin brought back many good memories.

Her award was presented for her ability to pioneer change in pharmacy practice for the betterment of patient health.

09

ALUMNI AWARDS

2019

AWARDEES A celebration of our achievements

School of Postgraduate NOMINATIONS Studies NOW OPEN Awardee visit rcsi.ie/alumniawards DR KELLY AYLWARD CLASS OF 2005, PHD

Country of Residence: Belgium Professional Title: Chief Operations Officer,

MINT Europe Dr Kelly Aylward was recruited to the first Irish structured PhD programme at RCSI in 2001.

During her PhD, she established new research techniques, mentored undergraduate students, demonstrated her capacity as a strong and effective research leader. She presented at international conferences and published her work in high-quality journals. After gaining her PhD in 2005 she took up two short postdoctoral positions at INSERM in Paris and at Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

Kelly identified a niche market to support companies in acquiring grants and incentives for research and development. Together with two colleagues, she set up Mint Europe in early 2009.

Mint is now the largest independent subsidy consultancy company in Belgium with a team of 25 consultants including ten PhD scientists.

Mint’s focus is on the provision of subsidy advice relating to innovation and strategic business development in sectors including pharmaceutical, energy, IT and manufacturing, and also in management consultancy. Mint’s clients include start-ups, SMEs and multinationals. As part of EU-funded collaborative projects, Mint also supports organisations at EU level. Kelly is both the scientific/technical partner of Mint’s management board and the company’s Chief Operations Officer.

She says RCSI has had a huge impact on her life and career, not least because she credits RCSI with meeting her husband Dr Hans Ulrichts. They live in Belgium and have three children.

10

School of Nursing & Midwifery Awardee DR EMER SHANLEY

CLASS OF 2011, PG DIP 2011; MSC 2012; PHD 2018 Country of Residence: Ireland Professional Title: Clinical Nurse Specialist (Tissue Viabilty) Dr Emer Shanley is a highly accomplished Clinical Nurse Specialist (Tissue Viability) working in community care in West Cork.

Her studies in RCSI began in 2009 on a pathway programme, followed by PG Dip in Tissue Viability & Wound Management in 2011, MSc (Research) in 2012 and culminated in the

Institute of Leadership Awardee MR MARTIN DUNNE

CLASS OF 2015, MSC LEADERSHIP Country of Residence: Ireland Professional Title: Director, National Ambulance Service at Health Service Executive Mr Martin Dunne holds the position of Director of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) of Ireland and is Chairperson of the NAS Leadership Team.

He is accountable for the strategic and operational direction of the NAS and responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of pre-hospital and intermediate care services to the population of the Irish State. He oversees a budget of ¤200m, with the National Emergency Operations Centre

completion of PhD in November 2018. The focus of her research has been on older persons living independently in the community, a key component of the positive ageing strategy in Ireland. Emer combined her clinical and academic skills to develop interventions in response to clinically recognised patient needs, such as the Shanley Pressure Ulcer Prevention Programme (SPUPP), which was developed to provide structured education for patients at risk of developing pressure ulceration and the Patient Knowledge of Pressure Ulcer Prevention tool (KPUP). This work provides a significant advancement for the practice of pressure ulcer prevention, where patient involvement is the central tenet of person-centred care.

Emer was presented with an Alumni Award because her academic endeavours exemplify the concept “to educate nurture and discover for the benefit of human health”. A very worthy awardee, her two children and other family members were present to see her accept her Alumni Award.

(NEOC) across two sites, 500 vehicles, 2,000 staff managing 1,000 calls per day in 102 locations covering a population of 4,809,419 and an area of 68,890km2. Martin credits his 2015 MSc in Leadership for the leadership skills necessary to meet the future needs of the NAS, including the development of the strategic plan 2016-2020 and implementation of a significant reform agenda.

Through recent improvements, the NAS now has the highest rate of bystander CPR in the world at 84 per cent, and the youngest ambulance fleet in Europe. Ireland is also the only country in the world that is an Accredited Centre of Excellence from the International Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch. The NAS has also successfully trained more than 20,000 health professionals across Pakistan with the help of local certified instructors.

With the MSc in Leadership at RCSI designed to develop leadership skills and the ability to be innovative in a healthcare environment that has limited resources, increased demands and significant budget restrictions, Martin is a deserving recipient of an Alumni Award which he accepted in the presence of his wife, Carina, and their three daughters, Ciara, Shauna and Aoife. n

ALUMNI AWARDS

2020

A celebration of our achievements

NOMINATIONS

NOW OPEN visit rcsi.ie/alumniawards

ALUMNI AWARDS

2019

AWARDEES A celebration of our achievements

HONOURING ALUMNI

More than 100 alumni and guests attended the inaugural 2019 RCSI NOMINATIONS Alumni Awards which took place inOPEN NOW College Hall on 22 visit March. rcsi.ie/alumniawards The awards were established to celebrate the outstanding achievements of RCSI alumni who, as global healthcare professionals, are leading the world to better health.

Six exceptional RCSI role models were honoured at this gala dinner.

Mary Copeland, Ruaidhri O’Connor and Frances Horgan, Head of the School of Physiotherapy, RCSI

Brian Kirby, Head of the School of Pharmacy, RCSI, Fatima Rustom (Pharmacy, 2008) and Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI

School of Medicine Alumni Awardee, Daniel Briscoe (Medicine, 1987) with his family

Aíne Gibbons, Director of Development – Alumni Relations , Ciaran O’Boyle, Director, Institute of Leadership, RCSI, Martin Dunne (MSc 2015), Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI, Ken Mealy, President, RCSI and Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, RCSI

Zena Moore, Head of the School of Nursing & Midwifery, RCSI, Emer Shanley (PG Dip 2011; MSc 2012; PhD 2018) and Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI

Shlomie and Daniel Briscoe (Medicine, 1987)

Suzanne Sullivan, Sara McDonnell and Ciaran O’Boyle, Director, Institute of Leadership, RCSI

Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI, Kelly Aylward (PhD 2005) and Niamh Moran, Head of the School of Postgraduate Studies, RCSI

Aíne Gibbons, Director of Development – Alumni Relations, Ken Mealy, President, RCSI, Arnold Hill, Head of the School of Medicine, RCSI, Daniel Briscoe (Medicine, 1987), Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI and Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, RCSI

12

Sara Gallagher (Medicine, 1987), Ben Briscoe and Nava Briscoe

Alumni Awardee 2019, Kelly Aylward (PhD 2005) with her family

Alumni Awardee 2019, Martin Dunne (MSc 2015) with his wife Carina and daughters Ciara, Aoife and Shauna

Mai and Brian Chan with their mother, Alumni Awardee 2019, Emer Shanley (PG Dip 2011; MSc 2012; PhD 2018)

Esther Mary D’Arcy; Alumni Awardee 2019, Avril Copeland (Physiotherapy, 2010) and Bríd Wilson

Frances Horgan , Head of the School of Physiotherapy, RCSI, Avril Copeland (Physiotherapy, 2010) and Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI

2018 PA Associate Graduates Ciara Melia, Kellie Nwaokorie and Jessica Maddock

Denni Woodmansee, Associate Professor and Programme Director, Physician Associate Studies, RCSI, Judith Gilroy, Associate Director for Academic Affairs, RCSI and Gordon Jamieson, Head of Corporate Fundraising, RCSI

Alexandra Nieuwesteeg (3rd Year Medicine) and Laura O’Connor (2nd Year Physiotherapy)

Helen French, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, RCSI and Sonja Lee-Finnegan

Mary Colllins, Senior Executive Development Specialist, Institute of Leadership, RCSI and Claudine Kearney, Programme Director, RCSI

RCSI School of Nursing and Midwifery: Declan Patton, Director of Research and Senior Lecturer, Pauline Wilson, Tom O’Connor, Deputy Head of Department and Senior Lecturer, Zena Moore, Head of School, Emer Shanley (PG Dip 2011; MSc 2012; PhD 2018), James Hayes, Operations Manager and Helen Strapp

13

RCSI alumnus and former Leinster rugby team doctor, Dr Jim McShane.

DOCS AND

RUCKS

Former captain of Ireland, RCSI alumnus Niall Hogan, in action against England.

The Rugby Club at RCSI is one of the oldest in the country and the College’s links with rugby involve not just the members, teams, supporters and alumni but also research into rugby-related injuries. Brian Lowry reports

M

edicine has been intertwined with rugby since the 1800s. A survey carried out at the turn of the millennium revealed that 201 of the 980 Irish international players up to the year 2000 were medical doctors, with RCSI claiming more than its fair share, dating back to Sir William Watson Pike in 1897.

The Rugby Club at RCSI, established in 1881, is one of the oldest rugby clubs in the country, standing the test of time thanks to the many great alumni and staff who played their part over the years.

One of the great stalwarts of the Rugby Club is Professor Alan Johnson.

Throughout the years, Professor Johnson held a number of positions of distinction in the College including Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Vice Dean, Academic Director of Admissions and RCSI representative to the HRB and the Medical Council. In 2007, Professor Johnson was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of RCSI, receiving the honour in recognition of the substantial contribution he made to the College. The affection and esteem in which he is

14

held by students was not confined to his great teaching ability (he is described by former students as “charismatic”, “inspirational, kind, an all-round nice guy,” “encouraging, lectures crystal clear”) or his valuable research (mainly in cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism in diabetes) but also for his indefatigable support of the rugby teams.

Professor Johnson was President of the Rugby Club for 31 of the 35 years that he lectured at RCSI. “Over the many years of playing rugby at RCSI, I would look over to the sidelines in the freezing rain and see Professor Johnson and his dog,” says Donnie McGrath (Class of 1990). And his involvement was not just confined to the Leinster League and Dublin Hospitals Cup matches here, but also to the overseas tours to the United States, South Africa, New Zealand and France.

He has fond memories of the overseas trips.“The first one was to America in the nineties. It was an amazing trip – great fun and very social. We also travelled to France where we had an annual fixture with Saint Antoine, a medical School in Paris, now known as Université Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC).” He credits former Director of Estate and Support Services at RCSI, Barry O’Brien, for his role in arranging the tours.

RUGBY AT RCSI

THE DUBLIN HOSPITALS CUP WAS ESSENTIALLY REINVENTED AND IS NOW ONE OF THE MOST ESTABLISHED AND COMPETITIVE ANNUAL SPORTING COMPETITIONS.

PHOTO: OLLIE O’FLANAGAN

Before the game, RCSI Professor Mick Farrell, (Medicine, 1974) was inducted into the Hospitals Cup Hall of Fame.

“Barry O’Brien played an important role in the tours and A graduate of RCSI and a former was a strong supporter of RCSI rugby. He was a great man for RCSI - Beaumont Hospital, 2017 winners of the 129th Dublin Hospitals Cup. St Mary’s player, Professor Farrell’s organising sponsorship for various competitions,” explains input into the longest-running Professor Johnson. competition in World Rugby has been immense.

There was a time when the Club had multiple teams lining out, Currently, four teams representing five Dublin hospitals contest the Hospitals from the serious top team, down to the more social players, many Cup: the Mater, St Vincent’s, The Federated Hospitals (Tallaght combined with St of whom would have dabbled with the infamous “Jug” team, as James), and Beaumont. Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital was involved at the start and Professor Johnson describes: “When I started with the Club, there was central to the early years, winning the Cup 16 times in the first 30 years. Sir were three teams, with the third team called the ‘Jug’ team, with Patrick Dun’s alum Bethel Solomons (1885-1965) played on the Hospitals Cup reference to the Jug pub. It was very social. It was important to have winning team in the 1903-’04 and 1904-’05 seasons and won ten caps for Ireland a balance of work and sport.” in the next three years. Solomons was elected president of the Royal College of Fast forward to 2019 and the Club now competes in Division Physicians of Ireland in 1946, a position he held for three years.

Three of the Leinster League and this season finished a very The first RCSI alumnus selected to play for Ireland was consultant Sir William credible fourth in the League, narrowly missing out on a top two Watson Pike, who won the first of five caps at full-back against England on finish. RCSI also contests the famed Hospitals Cup, a competition established March 34, 1897 at Kennington Oval. in 1881, whose popularity waxed and waned over time. [Note that RCSI is now More recently, one of the more famous Dublin Hospital Cup players has been the permanent home of the historic Hospitals Cup Trophy. The trophy is the Felipe Contepomi, (Medicine, 2007). The Argentina international and captain original Cup, made by Paul Storr, England’s most prominent silversmith of the was nominated for the International Player of the Year in 2007 – the same year 19th century, who famously produced most of the silver for King George III he graduated from RCSI. Now a member of the Leinster coaching team, he was and King George IV.] One notable player graduate from the early days was Dr inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2017 and has fond memories of Morgan Patrick Crowe who, along with Patrick Finbarr Murray, was selected his time at RCSI. to tour with the Lions in 1930. Dr Morgan Crowe describes its influence: “The years when I was working and studying in RCSI and playing for Leinster “It seemed to disappear in the 1960s and 1970s but in the mid-1980s, the were my best rugby years,” he says.“It was a big part of my life and although Dublin Hospitals Cup was essentially reinvented and is now one of the most Argentina is 12,000 miles away from Dublin, I am always very proud to say I established and competitive annual sporting competitions for medical students was taught at RCSI. I had a big desire to become a doctor and I think that desire and doctors in Dublin Hospitals. There were so many players who went on to helped me to juggle sport and medicine.” represent Ireland, the Lions or excelled in other sporting arenas. Many players, Given their career choice, it is no surprise that a number of alumni have gone supporters and administrators of the competition made major contributions to on to serve the game of rugby in a medical capacity. Jim McShane, (Medicine, the medical profession in bodies such as RCSI.” 1986) is a former Connacht Interprovincial and also served as team doctor to Indeed, the 2017 season proved a big one for the RCSI Rugby Club when RCSILeinster Rugby while working within the Irish set-up. McShane is a general Beaumont Hospital were crowned the winners of the 129th Dublin Hospitals practitioner in Dun Laoghaire and is also a member of RCSI’s Faculty of Sports Cup, beating UCD’s Mater Hospital on a final score of 27-12. and Exercise Medicine.

The victory, which took place in front of a packed crowd at Old Belvedere As Professor Johnson recalls: “In the early eighties, we had quite a number RFC, brought RCSI-Beaumont Hospital’s nine-year drought to an end. It was a of players in the interprovincial system. People like Jim McShane who played thrilling game from the start, RCSI-Beaumont never allowing UCD-Mater an for Connacht. Paddy Gavin, (Medicine, 1988) and Hubie Gallagher, (Medicine, opportunity to get ahead.

RCSI and UPMC Alumni teams 2019.

15

RUGBY AT RCSI Alumnus Felipe Contepomi, former top scorer with the Leinster rugby team and currently backs coach at Leinster Rugby.

for Connacht. Paddy Gavin, (Medicine, match saw the home team victorious 34–21.

1988) and Hubie Gallagher, (Medicine, 1986) As ever, the gathering was reason enough were wingers for Leinster. Frank McGrath, to celebrate.

(Medicine, 1982) was there as well.

But the influence of the Rugby Club “Niall Hogan, (Medicine, 1995) went goes far beyond the social. Recently, RCSI on to play for Ireland and captained the and the IRFU Charitable Trust launched a team. He was a very strong research partnership with the support of the player to be able to call on AMBER SFI Research Centre for Materials for the Hospitals Cup,” says Science, Leinster Schools Rugby and World Professor Johnson.

Rugby. The launch was attended by many Hogan was part of the Irish current and former players including Rugby World Cup squad that Tommy Bowe, Luke Fitzgerald and travelled to South Africa in Leo Cullen.

1995. He was also a busy man The research will be twofold. One Back on campus: RCSI alumni Niall Hogan and Felipe Contepomi. on the academic front as he project will develop an advanced platform was sitting his final year exams. for spinal cord repair, combining novel Professor Alan Johnson “I had a wonderful experience at RCSI,” says Hogan. “There would biomaterials, stem cells and gene therapy. receiving his Honorary often be weeks where I would be training twice with my club Terenure, The lead on this part of the project is Fergal Fellowship from former with the Leinster under-20s or the seniors. When it was rugby season, O’Brien, Professor of Bioengineering & RCSI President Professor Gerald O’Sullivan. rugby was the priority and when the exams came around, you would Regenerative Medicine cram and get through them.” at RCSI and Deputy He describes how the College facilitated his international rugby Director of the AMBER RCSI IS EXTREMELY PROUD career on one specific occasion. “The World Cup was in South SFI Research Centre, AND EXCITED TO BE A PART Africa in 1995 but it clashed with the final medical exams. While who aims to develop a I got through the exams, I was going to miss out on my graduation revolutionary way to OF WHAT IS HOPED TO BE here because of being at the World Cup. The College very kindly treating spinal cord injury GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH organised for Barry O’Brien and others to fly out and I had my own worldwide.

THAT WILL BENEFIT THE SPORT. special graduation ceremony in Johannesburg.”

The second research Since 1990, teams from RCSI and the Université Pierre and Marie project will look at the Curie (UPMC) – part of the Sorbonne University group – have training load and injury competed annually. Alternating between Ireland and France, around the Six risk in schoolboys’ level rugby in Leinster. Again, RCSI will have a big role to Nations fixtures, alumni, friends and former players often make the journey to play in this with the School of Physiotherapy team leading the study to get a catch up with former team-mates and the opposition. better understanding of the intensity workloads placed on the Leinster Senior This year Saint Antoine (UPMC) visitors were welcomed to the College Cup Schools squads. by the RCSI rugby team and College staff including Professor Arnie Hill, Heading up the RCSI involvement on this second project are Dr Helen French, Professor Alan Johnson, Professor Michael Farrell, Corriena Brien and Physiotherapist and Senior Lecturer and Louise Keating, Physiotherapist and Emily O’Brien.

Lecturer. The study is a big step forward in the development of injury prevention RCSI’s “Old Boys” were out in force to take on the Saint Antoine “Old Boys”, strategies and the study will be bolstered by the use of an app developed by with the RCSI Alumni team led by Michael Flanagan, (Medicine, 2014). Alumni World Rugby to collect data. who took part in the weekend festivities included Professor James Paul O’Neill, One man who would have been proud of the new initiative is the late Arthur Dr Brian O’Neill, Mr James Walsh and Dr Philip J. O’Halloran. The following Tanner. Professor Tanner, former Director of Surgical Affairs at RCSI and Vice day, both student and ‘old boy’ teams took to Railway Union RFC to battle the Dean of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine at the College. A former French. The alumni match saw the home team defeated 12–24 while the student player and team doctor with Leinster, he was a staunch supporter of rugby throughout his years at the College.

While there has been plenty of on-field success for RCSI, the Club’s DNA is to ONES TO WATCH remain social and competitive and to maintain its rich traditions.

Trips, like one to Japan planned for this autumn, reflect the strong bonds ANGUS LLOYD, 4th Med, playing for Connacht Rugby, having within the membership. They actively promote engagement in sport but previously played for Munster. also, crucially, keep alive friendships and bonds that were made under the RCSI roof.

CLAIRE KEOHANE, 4th Med, “I am retired from the College about nine years. I used to regularly go and on the Irish Rugby 15’s panel and watch matches at weekends. I had a lot of happy times with RCSI Rugby,” says the 7’s team; hoping to get to Professor Johnson. ^ Tokyo 2020.

16

THE STATE OF GENERAL PRACTICE

FIT FOR

THE FUTURE

With the new €210m deal that has been struck with Government, can GPs look forward to some respite? We talk to five alumni about the legacy of underinvestment in General Practice and how it impacted on their workload, morale and patient care

R

ecent years have seen hardworking family doctors deal with rising demand from patients while enduring funding cuts in General Practice. The new deal announced in April will see the long-sought reversal of the controversial Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (FEMPI) cuts of €120m (plus €10m in pension contributions) imposed on General Practice at the height of the financial crisis which have been a major source of anger among GPs. An additional fund of €80m was secured for the management of GMS patients with chronic disease in the community.

“This is an important step towards investing in General Practice and valuing it as a vital part of the health service,” said Chair of IMO GP Committee, Dr Padraig McGarry. “GPs will receive their restoration of FEMPI in four stages. The first increase will become effective in July 2019 with phased increases in January 2020, 2021 and 2022.”

Although there is no official register of GPs in Ireland, it is thought that there are more than 2,500 currently practising, and there are more than 4,000 members and associates of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), comprising over 85 per cent of practising GPs in the Republic. The HSE predicts a shortage of up to 2,055 GPs in Ireland by 2025.

The current shortage of GPs is the legacy of a decade of funding cuts and the additional demands placed on them and their resources by an ageing population, with the emphasis on primary care by successive governments adding ever more pressure.

According to the ICGP, there are 690 GP trainees. The numbers have increased in recent years and the ICGP estimate that 192 trainees will be

recruited for the 2019 intake. However, according to some reports, once qualified, there is a problem with retention. Up to now, young doctors simply have not seen General Practice as a viable career, and the job has become less attractive, with more work required for less pay.

The current system means that, in order to make their practices viable, GPs have to take on a large number of medical card holders. The result is that they are overstretched, and patients are placed at risk. There are now approximately two million patients with medical cards or GP-visit cards in Ireland – 40 per cent more than eight years ago. Yet the FEMPI cuts in 2009 meant funding was cut for General Practitioners by 38 per cent and this led to the current crisis. Many GPs closed their practices to new patients. Seventeen per cent of GPs – 700 of them – are due to retire in the next four years.

The burnout rate among GPs – particularly in rural and deprived areas – is high, with many worn down by paperwork and administration, waiting lists and the inability to secure services for their patients. The impact on family life is devastating The recently announced investment in primary care and in keeping patients out of hospitals is long overdue. The cost of treating a patient in a hospital bed is €1,200 per night; while the cost of treating a patient in their own bed is less than €100 per night. According to a recent paper published by Deloitte, every €1 invested in primary care saves €5 in the rest of the health service.

In a recent survey by the ICGP, 52 per cent of GPs said they would opt for another career, if they could choose again. Over 66 per cent stated they would advise their children to follow a career other than General Practice, and 31 per cent planned to leave General Practice in the next five years. It is hoped that the latest initiative will help reverse this.

17

GPS on the frontline: DR ANTONIA LEHANE

CLASS OF 1982

“I

'Single-handed’ General Practitioner in Swords, Co Dublin; currently President of the Association of Medical and Dental Graduates of RCSI.

’ve been in practice in Swords for 30 years, my practice population being roughly half and half GMS/private patients. Although a single GP, I have an excellent secretary/manager and parttime nurse. Also, I work in collaboration with another ‘single-handed’ practice in the area. I have a particular interest in women’s health and I run a specialised clinic treating varicose veins and vein problems.

Outside of General Practice, I’m involved in equestrian sport and act as medical officer at horse-racing and other equestrian events.

“It is a fact that the majority of medical graduates will spend the main part of their professional career in General Practice or primary care, whether that’s their intention at the outset or not!

“Over the years, I have taken many undergraduates on attachment in my practice, for four to six weeks each time. I believe this gives students a great insight into what General Practice is all about; they get a good training. Seeing patients is the easy bit of the job! One of the most difficult things about my work is the problem of long waiting lists for patients needing specialist treatment. Even if patients have private health insurance, there are waiting lists and much longer waiting lists for

DR PHILIP WIEHE CLASS OF 1980

Sundrive Medical Centre, Dublin 12

“I

'm one of seven GPs at the Sundrive Medical Centre – five partners and two registrars. We have three parttime nurses and eight administrative staff including a practice manager and secretary. One of our nurses is Polish and I’m from Mauritius, but I never practised there.

We have 10,000 patients, 3,500 of whom would be GMS. We have a satellite practice close by.

“We run nurse-led clinics for diabetes, asthma and Heartwatch (a secondary prevention programme for patients who have had a cardiac event). We provide services for women’s health, immunisation, travel vaccination, minor surgery, joint injections. In our centre we also have a physiotherapist, psychotherapist and podiatrist. A training practice, we provide training for two registrars and undergraduate tutoring for medical students. I have personally been involved with medical education since 1988.

“Among the challenges we have faced is being under-resourced in terms of staff. Locums are difficult to come by. Another challenge is access to care for patients – at the moment I can’t get a home care package for an elderly patient with aggressive Alzheimer’s, and there’s a three-month waiting list for physiotherapy in the community. If an elderly patient seizes up, then they may

18

medical card patients; it takes time and a lot of effort to arrange referrals and a GP must act as an advocate for his/her patient. Anything that can be done to reduce waiting times for specialist treatment would make life easier for both doctors and patients.

“Generally, patient satisfaction with GPs is higher than with hospital services and clinics and a patient with an acute problem is usually seen in General Practice on the same day. One of the most fulfilling things about General Practice is the personal relationship that develops between doctor and patient. You get to know patients and their families well; I’ve been treating different members of one family in my practice over four generations. This makes General Practice professionally rewarding. The patient’s trust in their GP is most important. It’s more difficult to establish those relationships in large group practices where the patient might see a different doctor each time that they visit. But patients understand the value of it, and outcomes are better for patients where there is continuity of care with a GP who knows an individual’s history and circumstances and takes an holistic approach. Most GPs give great commitment to their patients and work very hard.”

lose mobility completely. Funding for patients in a primary care setting has been very poorly resourced. I spend a significant amount of my time trying to get elderly patients referred for procedures on joints and cataracts; there are two- and threeyear waiting lists here. They eventually have access to crossborder services under the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) but is it morally right to be sending them cross-border when we have so many excellent orthopaedic surgeons and opthalmologists here? I’m amazed that people are so accepting.

“In General Practice, you are running your own small business and you are responsible for everything. Our building needs to be refurbished but there is no funding. Our facilities are not fit for purpose. Another challenge for GPs is keeping up to date in terms of education. There is plenty of randomly available educational material but we are not encouraged nor trained to prioritise this information for training. The demands of regulation are incessant – GDPR has been challenging.

“There’s uncertainty regarding the future of General Practice; I feel for younger colleagues. I have managed to avoid burnout thanks to working as part of a great team. Colleagues working in rural areas are particularly vulnerable.

It’s not just about money, significant reorganisation is required. The HSE and Department of Health need to believe in primary care and not just talk about it.

The primary care strategy was rolled out in 2002, but there was no analysis of the needs of the population in certain areas, and the development and staffing

THE STATE OF GENERAL PRACTICE

of centres accordingly. I practice in an area that’s deemed to be of lesser need, but we have an older population with more than a hundred over-90s on the books. Tallaght has a much younger population and different requirements.

Primary care should follow the patient.

“GPs I believe have been further and further isolated from secondary care.

Communication with secondary care colleagues no longer exists. This leads to further working in isolation with no sharing of information. We tend to be overwhelmed at times with matters which are more of a regulatory nature than of actual relevance to patient needs and care.

“We should be remunerating young GPs well to encourage them into the profession – they are well-educated and provide care to a very high standard.

They need to be incentivised to bring primary care in a new era where they can care for patients with more autonomy but at the same time in better

collaboration with secondary care. GPs are currently remunerated on the number of patients that they see each day but get no credit for running a good practice. I see an average of 25 patients a day and make one home visit a week. We assign one doctor to emergency appointments each morning.

Each day I spend five to six hours seeing patients, and the same amount of time on paperwork, repeat prescriptions etc. We are thinking about employing a clinical pharmacist, which would save some time.

“We have been providing GP services to Cheeverstown House for the past 15 years, seeing patients with intellectual and physical disabilities. I also work as an undergraduate and postgraduate tutor with UCD, and I’m involved in the North Inner-City GP programme. I think GPs have a strong role to play in addressing issues of population health.”

DR KNUT ARTHUR MOE CLASS OF 2010

Churchtown Family Practice, Dublin 14 and Moe Family Practice, Dublin 14

“I

studied business and worked in finance before studying medicine, and I graduated from RCSI at the age of 30. My father is a doctor (as well as both grandparents) and I grew up around General Practice, so it was a natural choice for me. I have what some might call a portfolio career, in that as well as being in General Practice, I have a few other interests. I run my own practice with my wife, Dr Hana Maka (Class of 2007). I also manage my father’s practice (Dr Knut Harald Moe, Class of 1971) – he is still working at the age of 74 with no intention of retiring any time soon! Between the two practices we have grown to five GPs, two part-time nurses, and seven part-time administrative staff. I also work on Mondays in a hair restoration clinic treating hair loss and I’m in the final year of a two-year Executive MBA at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, where I attend lectures two evenings a week.

“On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I arrive at work at 8.15/8.30 and deal with any overnight prescription requests, phone calls, take a quick look at the previous night’s bloods and triage any emergency appointments. I typically see 12-15 patients in the morning surgery and the same again in the afternoon, a mix of private and medical card patients. From 12.30-2.30pm, I deal with prescription requests (maybe 20-30 in a day) and return phone call requests and emails (probably another 15-20 from patients, doctors, nursing homes, pharmacies and allied health professionals) during lunch or in the afternoon clinic.

“I check the blood results (up to 30 results per day), read post (30-40 letters), fill forms, write referrals, social welfare certificates, work certificates (10-20 per day) either at lunchtime or when I have finished with patients in the afternoon.

I try to get home for lunch but rarely do these days. I tend to leave work between 7pm and 8pm, sometimes without seeing the kids before they go to bed.

“As I don’t have a practice manager at present, I have Thursday set aside to do practice management and college preparation, so I don’t have to spend every evening studying and reading during the week. I spend time doing medico-legal reports, preparing payroll for both practices, completing insurance reports, ordering supplies, doing billing and returns, dealing with HR issues and

banking. Any meetings that need to happen are usually arranged for Thursdays. I have lectures from 5pm to 10pm and then head home to bed. On Fridays, I work in a nursing home from 8.30am until 10am, and then do a full day in my dad’s practice, which is more or less the same schedule as Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Practice issues get resolved on an ad hoc basis before and after clinic, but I make sure to go for lunch with my wife once per week to discuss practice issues and catch up.

“I’m an Associate Clinical Professor in UCD School of Medicine and host students in my practice for six to eight weeks a year so, while I don’t have trainees, I have students with me regularly and really enjoy teaching them. Often, it’s their first clinical exposure and being able to see patients and learn on a one to one basis with a GP is really beneficial for them. Weekends often involve doing paperwork, or an out-of-hours shift in East Doc, or college work. Occasionally I get to relax and play with the kids a bit!

“THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESTORATION OF FUNDING TO GENERAL PRACTICE IS TO BE BROADLY WELCOMED, HOWEVER THERE IS STILL A LOT TO DO TO IMPROVE SERVICES.” “My goal is to spend four days a week in General Practice and have a day for management/other work rather than doing this every evening. It’s important to balance clinical and administrative work so as not to get burnt out. Doctors are not taught much about the business of healthcare in medical school and many practices suffer as a result, so that’s something I’m keen to keep a handle on. It’s really important that GPs operate more efficiently, so that they can spend more time with patients. I enjoy this side of General Practice, which is why I’m studying for the MBA. “General Practice is a wonderful career and it is a privilege to look after patients throughout their lives. However, GPs have been surviving rather than thriving for some time now, putting out fires rather than practising

19

THE STATE OF GENERAL PRACTICE

DR LUCINDA DOCKERAY CLASS OF 1999

DR RICHARD BRENNAN CLASS OF 1978

Ballyhale Health Centre, Co Kilkenny

“T

here are a lot of positives to being a GP but all you hear in the media is the negative side! Having spent the past 30 years as a rural GP, I recognise the stress, and risk of possible burnout, but the career positives far outweigh the negatives.

Whereas the administrative burden is heavy, the rewards are in what I call the ‘Dr Finlay’ side of practice where you get to work one to one with patients and to care for them.

“GP morale was affected by austerity. The proposed reversal of FEMPI is vitally important to the future development of General Practice.

“Our disabled and elderly patients are soft targets when cuts are made and we as GPs need to advocate on their behalf.

“Hospitals get a disproportionate amount of the healthcare budget.

This is driven, in part, by political response to topical issues. News drives funding to the hospital sector but the sophistication of primary care systems determines population health outcomes and society gets the best return on investment in primary care. For example, a hospital approach to ageing will not be sustainable into the future. Care of the elderly may need to be less interventionist, while at all times respecting patients’ choices. Everyone has a bed in their own home and should be supported if they wish to stay there! A rebalancing is needed.

“Sláintecare is presented as the panacea but will it actually be implemented? Currently it is our best hope and we need to make it happen.”

20

Dodder Park Medical, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

PHOTO: KIERAN HARNETT

preventative medicine, due to the well-documented increasing pressures and cutbacks across the health service. Waiting times in hospitals and in General Practice have increased. Many GPs have closed their lists to new patients.

Stress and burnout are on the rise among GPs. Access to diagnostics in the community is woefully inadequate.

“General Practice is not currently seen as an attractive speciality in Ireland.

While GPs are being trained here, many are either emigrating to countries with better working conditions or leaving General Practice entirely. Fewer GPs are willing to take ownership of practices as it’s not worth the stress or financial risk. Hundreds of GPs are due to retire over the next five years with few lined up to replace them and there are real concerns about the future viability of General Practice as a career.

“The recent announcement of restoration of funding to General Practice is to be broadly welcomed, however there is still a lot to do to improve services for patients and make General Practice a more attractive career in Ireland.

General Practice needs to be the cornerstone of the health service and recommendations worldwide are that about ten per cent of our health budget be spent on General Practice, but I’m not sure we’re even touching four per cent here, so clearly there is more work to do.”

“O

ur General Practice consists of three GPs, two practice nurses and two admin staff.

The wider team includes a physiotherapist, clinical psychologist and a podiatrist. We have a good mix of patients of all ages and backgrounds. I am also the Medical Officer of Bloomfield Hospital. I currently sit on the ICGP Nursing and Care Home Special Interest Group.

“The practice is extremely busy, I see roughly 30 patients each day. In addition, there is the constant stream of paperwork, telephone calls and practice management. At present we tend to be booked up a day or two in advance. Home visits are reserved for our palliative care patients. I try not to allow it but the practice management side usually spills in to the evening and weekends. We have regular practice meetings which contribute to CME points.

I enjoy teaching fourth year medical students when on placement with us.

“The biggest challenge facing General Practice is the manpower crisis and everything else is a knock-on from that. There are 700 GPs due to retire in the next four years and only 90 GMS GPs under the age of 35 who are coming through to take their place. Of the newly qualified GPs each year almost 50 per cent leave the country for better terms and conditions elsewhere. It is virtually impossible to get locum cover for annual leave or maternity. Many GP lists are closed to new patients, patients can no longer get same-day appointments and in rural areas have to travel to access a GP. In order to reverse this trend, we must incentivise our young GP trainees with a varied and structured career.

“We need to provide opportunities for training and development of special interests such as minor surgery etc. In addition, there needs to be special incentives for GPs to work in rural and deprived areas.

“Restoring the funding that was lost under FEMPI will go some way to resuscitating General Practice but it will not deliver the robust primary care sector needed to serve the Irish population. We know that for every €1 invested in primary care a further €5 is saved down the road. If we are to truly achieve the vision that is Sláintecare our politicians must allocate the transitional funding required to shift healthcare from the hospitals in to the community.

“Above all, we need to boost morale. The eternal optimist in me hopes for a day when the Department of Health communicates the message that General Practice is valued, engages with our unions and the HSE PCRS simply provides a transparent payment structure. Ideally, we need to move away from the current capitation system which is arbitrary, unfair and disincentivises good medicine and introduce a system where payment reflects the complexity of the consultation.

“General Practice has so much to contribute to the health of our nation once adequately resourced. Every year, one in seven people will be diagnosed with cancer in A&E, invariably at a later stage, this could be averted by giving GPs access to diagnostics such as scans and ultrasounds. We are also in a prime place to provide direct access to free contraception to the women of Ireland.

“As a GP I love my job: it is diverse, rewarding and nothing can replace the lifelong relationship we have with our patients. I am continually inspired by my colleagues, their resourcefulness and dedication.” n

@JNJMedDeviceUKI

@JNJMedDeviceUKI

RESEARCH & INNOVATION DELIVERS RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

RCSI’s strategic investment in people and research infrastructure in recent years has paid dividends with high-impact publications in top-tier research journals, outstanding growth in funding and more collaboration with industry and other institutions worldwide.

RCSI research impact in

2018 GRANT INCOME:

€29.1

2018

MILLION

RCSI HAS THE HIGHEST OVERALL SUCCESS RATE ON H2020 SUBMISSIONS (28%, IRISH AND EUROPEAN AVERAGE = 15%)

15

INVENTION DISCLOSURES

22

INDUSTRY FUNDING FOR RESEARCH:

3.3 MILLION IN 2018

Citation Impact:

International Collaboration

51.5%

of RCSI’s publications (2013-2017) were co-authored with institutions in other countries

4

NEW PATENTS FILED

RCSI’s field-weighted citation impact (2013-2017) is twice the world average and ranks 102nd in the world.

26

MORE THAN

650 PUBMED INDEXED ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN 2018

COLLABORATIVE AGREEMENTS WITH INDUSTRY SIGNED IN 2018 The Times Higher Education University Rankings score for the category “industry income to academic staff member” has increased from 28 in 2014 to 45.7 in 2018.

Dr Annie Curtis

CHEMOGEL, AN RCSI PIPELINE SPIN-OUT COMPANY PRESENTS AT BIG IDEAS 2018

Dr Helena Kelly, School of Pharmacy, RCSI was selected to pitch her RCSI spin-out opportunity, ChemoGel, at Big Ideas 2018. ChemoGel aims to improve overall survival of pancreatic cancer patients by increasing the percentage of patients who are eligible for surgery by reducing the tumour burden in patients who are currently considered unsuitable for surgery due to tumour size. Big Ideas is a high profile event that empowers the front runners in Irish research commercialisation to take centre stage and pitch their technology solutions and business propositions to an audience of entrepreneurs and investors. Funded by an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation grant, ChemoGel is a unique, thermoresponsive gel drug delivery platform which enables site specific delivery and sustained release of chemotherapeutics at solid tumour sites.

ChemoGel’s lead clinical indication is pancreatic cancer which has the highest rate of death per incidence of any cancer.

RESEARCH

TIME OF DAY AFFECTS SEVERITY OF AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

Dr Annie Curtis of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics (MCT) and collaborators at TCD have revealed how the body clock and time of day influence immune responses.

Understanding the effect of the interplay between 24-hour day-night cycles and the immune system may help inform drug-targeting strategies to alleviate autoimmune disease. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

DEVELOPING NEW REGENERATIVE MATERIALS FOR HEART DEFECTS

Professor Fergal O’Brien’s team, in partnership with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and Eberhard Karls University in Germany, have developed a new biomaterial which is capable of both regenerating tissues which respond to electrical stimuli (such as the nerves, spinal cord, heart, brain and muscles) and eliminating infection - an ever-growing problem in hospitals. This could enable enhanced recovery for heart attack and burn patients. The study is published in Advanced Materials, a leading international materials science journal.

STUDY LEADS CHANGE

IN DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF COMMON BLEEDING CONDITION

A clinical study led

by Professor James O’Donnell, Director of the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology, has found that people with the inherited bleeding disorder Low von Willebrand Factor have a much greater bleeding tendency than previously thought. These findings, published in the leading haematology scientific journal Blood, change how doctors perceive and manage this bleeding condition particularly in preparation for surgery or childbirth.

Professor James O’Donnell

INNOVATION

The number of inventions identified by RCSI researchers, new research commercialisation agreements and industry-funded research programmes increased again in 2018. RCSI greatly exceeded its targets for industry engagement and invention disclosures (as independently set by Knowledge Transfer Ireland). The value of new industry-funded research programmes with leading multi-national companies such as Roche, Bayer and Janssen and indigenous Irish SME’s such as Ergo and SurgaColl, also grew to €3.3m.

NEW TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT

Professor Sally Ann Cryan

Led by researchers at RCSI, a new practical treatment for tuberculosis (TB) has the potential to be scaled-up and mass-produced for clinical testing. TB is one of the top ten causes of death worldwide. Ending the TB epidemic by 2030 is listed among the health targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The new RCSI-discovered treatment, which patients will take using an inhaler, works by reducing the bacteria in the lungs that causes TB while also helping the patient’s immune system fight the disease.

Funded by the Health Research Board (HRB) and the Royal City of Dublin Hospital Trust, the research is published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics & Biopharmaceutics. The work, led by Dr Gemma O’Connor and Professor Sally Ann Cryan in RCSI, was carried out in collaboration with research teams in St James Hospital, Trinity College Dublin and Imperial College London. ■

23

SECOND STRIKE Professor Leonie Young and her colleagues at RCSI are discovering crucial differences between primary and recurrent tumours in breast cancer, and developing new strategies to target those cancers that return.

Dr Claire O’Connell reports

C

ancer is a diagnosis that nobody wants to receive. But for some people, they hear it more than once. Around the world, hundreds of thousands of women each year learn that the breast cancer they were treated for has returned, often in other parts of their bodies.

These recurrent tumours can be highly resistant to the original treatment, and this is where Professor Leonie Young and colleagues at RCSI are on a mission to develop more targeted medicines to tackle them.

“Our main interest is in advanced disease where the cancer has recurred, the tumour has come back locally in the breast or in another organ,” explains Professor Young. “We are very much interested in looking at the difference between that primary tumour, the first tumour, and the tumour that returns. These returning tumours are usually more aggressive, they are harder to treat and there is a lack of targeted therapies out there for this recurrence. If we can find differences between the primary and recurrent tumours, this opens up new opportunities for new ways of targeting them.”

The vast majority of women, around 70 per cent, who are diagnosed with breast cancer initially have a type of tumour that is studded with large numbers of estrogen receptors, and such tumours can be treated with estrogen-receptor blocking medications. But in about 40 per cent of those cases – approximately half a million women each year – the disease will come back and may spread.

Concerted approach

To find out what is going on requires a concerted approach involving scientists, surgeons and patients. Professor Young, an expert in cell and molecular biology, works in tandem with clinical experts in Beaumont Hospital, including Professor Arnold Hill, Professor of Surgery and Head of the School of Medicine, RCSI. “We are very lucky to be working so closely with our clinical colleagues, as they are treating patients and have a deep understanding of the clinical side of breast cancer and its recurrence,” she says.

As a group, they are working with Clinical Trials Ireland on a large clinical trial across all the cancer-treating hospitals in Ireland. The trial recruits consenting patients when they present with primary breast cancer that is estrogen-receptor (ER) positive, and collects blood samples from those patients before and after surgery to remove the tumour, as well as surplus tissue from the primary tumour and from any later recurrent tumour.

24

Professor Young’s research is focused on uncovering networks involved in SRC-mediated resistance in breast cancer to both tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors. In doing so, these investigations will identify markers that predict these outcomes and importantly develop new therapeutic targets. The research focuses on SRC-1 and takes a high-level view to harness data from high throughput experimental methods, molecular studies, functional models and translational studies and capitalises on translational research, in particular making use of primary breast cell cultures derived from patient tumours and large clinical datasets. By modelling the mechanism(s) of resistance associated with SRC-1, this research has defined new predictive markers and therapeutic targets suitable for commercial development and clinical trial interventions that could improve patient outcomes.

Professor Young’s lab then analyses these samples for patterns in DNA structure and how genes are switched on or silenced: they compare and search for small but potentially important differences between how the primary and later tumours go about their biochemical business. “It involves a lot of data integration,” she explains. “We are looking at pathways that are changing and opportunities where we might have to intervene.”

So far, almost 2,500 women have been recruited onto the study, building up a biobank of patient samples and data that now includes 21 cases where a primary tumour in the breast later spread to the brain. “We have the largest biobank in Ireland for this disease,” says Professor Young. “And we also collaborate with colleagues internationally, sharing and comparing data to see if we can spot similar patterns across different groups of patients. We are looking to see if there are common pathways that extend over local issues, such as slightly different treatment regimes.”

Searching in the bigger picture

Their search is turning up interesting findings, including a protein called Ret, which crops up in relatively large amounts on the surface of recurrent tumours in the brain. That discovery has led to Professor Young working with an industry partner – a company that makes a molecule to block Ret – to see if jamming the protein could diminish these recurring tumours.

As well as looking at the effects of blocking Ret in laboratory models, Professor Young continues to look at the bigger picture of what is going on in the patient

RESEARCH

PATIENCE AND PATIENTS

– the keys to successful research

Professor Leonie Young

whose cancer returns. “We are building up layers of information to see not just what the tumour looks like at a very cellular level, but we are also looking at the patient as a whole,” she says. “We are treating a patient, not just a tumour.”

In parallel with the molecular studies, Professor Young is working with RCSI colleague Professor Kathleen Bennett, who has designed a questionnaire about lifestyle, compliance with medication regimes and a happiness index for patients to fill out while they are on the clinical trial. “This is a new element in the study, and we are only getting to the stage now of having enough data to start looking at patterns,” says Professor Young. “People are complicated, and we need to take on board that patients need to be able to have quality of life when they are on treatment over the longer term.”

Data - the lifeblood of medical research

A word that crops up repeatedly in conversation about Professor Young’s research is data, whether it is being collected from consenting patients, derived, integrated and analysed in the lab or shared with collaborators to gain more insights from larger numbers of samples.

Such data is a powerful driver of medical research, but with it comes an enormous responsibility to collect and treat it with due care and protect the privacy of patients. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and related health guidelines in Europe have made this an even hotter topic of conversation of late, and Professor Young notes that it is important to get it right.

“We have always been conscious of the importance of managing data correctly, and this is why we set up the study as a clinical trial,” she explains. “This means we have formal procedures and information in place so that patients are aware of what we may potentially do with the samples and everything is compliant with GDPR. In addition, the data analysis is completely separate from the clinical scenario, and the data is processed in such a way that is anonymised, we are looking at biochemical pathways and you can’t tell the genetic fingerprint from that. I think generally patients and researchers are right to be concerned about issues relating to health data and privacy, but the current climate has also raised awareness of the need to ensure that everything is handled with due care.” ^

Today, Professor Leonie Young oversees a range of studies ongoing in her lab at RCSI to look at changes in the structures and function of genetic material in tumour cells, as well as the larger patterns of what is going on in the lives and bodies of patients. She is grateful for funding from organisations including the Irish Cancer Society, Breast Cancer Ireland and the UK charity Breast Cancer Now, as well as Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Union, and she hopes that the results will benefit patients through more nuanced monitoring, prevention and treatment of recurring cancers.

Her interest in science and the natural world started young. “I always liked making things and I was forever walking around with worms in my pockets,” she recalls.

That curiosity fuelled a degree in natural sciences in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with an emphasis on physiology, then she went to to University College Dublin (UCD) to do a PhD on cellular factors in the kidney that affect blood flow.

Following a period spent carrying out research in the UK, she returned to UCD to work with one of her key mentors, Professor TJ McKenna, who cemented her interest in the study of steroid hormones and how they are activated in the cell.

From there she moved to the Department of Surgery in UCD to work with Professor Niall O’Higgins. “I took all I had learned about steroid receptors in the adrenal gland and applied it to breast cancer,” recalls Professor Young, who took up a position in RCSI in 2006 and secured an Investigator Award from SFI to build up her research.

“That award really allowed us to ask more adventurous questions and build bigger research projects, and it is such a tight research community here in RCSI,” she says. “We have great collaborations with the Department of Surgery in Beaumont and that means we can include patient studies with our more genomic and molecular studies, which makes such a difference. Lab models are great and we do use them, but being able to look at patients and follow results in relation to how the patient is faring is so rewarding and progressive.”

Professor Young credits the excellent researchers in her lab, many of whom have worked with her for more than a decade, and she reflects on the move from being a scientist at the bench listening to cricket matches on BBC Radio to managing her own research group of 15-20 people.

“You learn a lot from bench science about the art of picking yourself up after something hasn’t worked as you thought it might, figuring it out and moving on,” she says. “I also think that having patience is a key skill for progressing in many walks of life, and spending years in research helps you build that patience.”

25

ABOVE: May 2018: Wan Azizah addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Kuala Lumpur.

A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

Dato’ Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (Medicine 1978), began her medical career in Malaysia as an eye surgeon. But life was to take her on a very different path, leading her into politics and ultimately to her appointment as Malaysia’s first female Deputy Prime Minister

W

hen Wan Azizah Wan Ismail graduated from RCSI in 1978 at the age of 25, she seemed destined to enjoy a long medical career in her home country of Malaysia. A quite brilliant student, she had won a Gold Medal for obstetrics and gynaecology, and passed her exams with ease. Born in Singapore but brought up in Malaysia, in the RCSI Yearbook of 1978 she is described as being “well-known on the Dublin buses as the gentle Chinese nun who wouldn’t cross herself going past churches ...” In an article in The Irish Times, in 1998, she was reminded of this. She laughed at the memory of being taken for a religious sister and said it was easier to murmur “Bless you, my son,” to those who greeted her as a nun, rather than correct them. “I loved Ireland,” she says, “although the weather wasn’t too accommodating, I have plenty of good memories from my time there: Professor Rooney, who taught anatomy, and Professor PG Collins who had a great sense of humour. I made many friends there too: Dr Olayinka Lambo, from Nigeria, Dr John Burke, from England, Dr Knut Hegbom from Norway, among others.” Quick-witted, warm and self-effacing, little did Dr Wan Azizah know, while studying at RCSI, that ahead of her lay an extraordinary political life as leader of the Parti Keadilan

26

Nasional party (National Justice Party) and Malaysia’s first female Deputy Prime Minister, and an inspirational figure to all Malaysian women.

On her return to Malaysia from Dublin in 1978, Dr Azizah got a job as a hospital eye surgeon. In 1980, she married Anwar Ibrahim, a firebrand reforming politician, and continued to work for another twelve years, while raising their young family. “Ours was a young country and we needed more professionals, and while I had more children than many other doctors, I wanted to serve.

Balancing being a doctor, a wife and a mother was challenging, but I had help.

Extended families living together was the norm then. If I was busy, there was always an aunt, uncle or grandparent around to help with the children.”

Meanwhile, the young radical politician Anwar threw his lot in with the majority party, though not in favour of their policies which favoured the fortunes of a small political and business elite. His plan was to reform from within, advocating for a fairer society. In 1993, Anwar was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, and Dr Azizah decided to opt for early retirement from her post as a surgeon. “I was the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister and I had many official duties to perform which I could not do while being a surgeon.” She was appointed to honorary posts in various organisations, but much of her time was spent entertaining guests from around the world, who came to see her husband.

ALUMNA IN THE SPOTLIGHT

“I BELIEVE CORRUPTION IS A CANCER, DANGEROUS AND PERVASIVE,” SHE SAID IN 1998, “AND YOU NEED A SURGEON’S TOUCH. I HAPPEN TO BE A WOMAN AND I HAPPEN TO BE A SURGEON, AND I THINK THAT HELPS VERY MUCH.“

RAZAK GHAZALI

The couple had six children and lived in a leafy suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

As a result of Anwar’s political intentions, there was constant surveillance on the house; their phones were tapped. Aware that he was at risk of a conspiracy to discredit him and fearing the worst, Anwar told the press: “If anything happens to me, then Azizah will take over.” Azizah was shocked. “It was a bit of a surprise, as he hadn’t discussed it with me.”

When Anwar was dragged at gunpoint from the house on the night of September 20 1998, it was the beginning of a long battle for Dr Azizah and her family, to clear Anwar of charges of corruption, a bitter irony, given his own anti-corruption agenda. In the face of the ruling party’s determination to smear him, enormous fortitude would be required on Dr Azizah’s part, as charges were levelled at Anwar, and he was found guilty, imprisoned, acquitted, arrested again, over a 20-year-period. Anwar’s first 78-day trial was a gruelling episode, at the end of which, despite a lack of evidence, he was convicted and sentenced. Dr Azizah could visit him in prison only once a month, a situation she found “sometimes unbearable …” She had no choice but to be strong and carry on.

Carrying on was one thing – leading a political party was another.

Dr Azizah was a political novice, with no allegiance to one party or another.

But a new political culture had been forming around the fledgling Reformasi movement, and Dr Azizah, inexperienced but sincere, untried but resolute, became a symbol and leader of the new anti-corruption movement. Her vision?

That Malaysia be free, democratic, accountable, benevolent, with good governance and growth …” The country was ready for change and Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, with no political experience whatsover, was to become a very important agent of that change. Her training as a doctor and a surgeon, allied with her natural compassion and hugely capable nature, was to make her equal to the task. “I believe corruption is a cancer, dangerous and pervasive,” she said in 1998, “and you need a surgeon’s touch. I happen to be a woman and I happen to be a surgeon, and I think that helps very much.” She adds now: “As doctors, we have to diagnose ailments. You can treat the symptoms but it is better to treat the cause.”

Dr Azizah helped establish the Parti Keadilan Nasional, later to become Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) in April 1999. Elected first party president, she led the party to five seats in parliament, including the seat formerly held by her husband which Dr Azizah filled herself. In 2004 and again in 2008, she won her seat, resigning to make way for her husband when in 2012, he was acquitted of his earlier conviction, and enjoyed the resumption of his political career. Astonishingly, Anwar’s earlier aquittal was overturned, and he was returned to prison in 2015, sentenced to five years. It was to be three more years before he would be freed. After PKR won the general election in May 2018, King Sultan Muhammed V officially pardoned him on the basis of a miscarriage of justice. He was exonerated and released from prison. He is currently the president of the People’s Justice Party and leader of the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

Before his release, the alliance of opposition parties finally, decisively, swept the board in the election. Dr Azizah assumed the role of Deputy Prime Minister (the first female in Malaysia’s history to do so), as well as that of Minister of

FROM TOP: Dr Wan Azizah with members of the Reformasi movement; meeting supporters on the campaign trail; with her husband Anwar.

Women, Family and Community Development. Her anti-corruption message prevails. She cites Malaysia’s “unity in diversity” as its trademark, urging peace and mutual respect among citizens.

In the face of injustice and corruption, Dr Azizah kept a reforming political vision alive and shaped, and continues to shape, the future of Malaysia. She led a reforming political party which, as part of an opposition alliance, overthrew the rule of a political and business elite. She champions human and civil rights, advocates for Malaysia’s political prisoners, and is an inspirational figure to all Malaysian women, encouraging women to join political life. For women in leadership roles and for female surgeons she has this advice: “You just have to work at it. Never give up, no matter what, because God will never test you more than you can bear.” A much-loved figure in Malaysia, she is referred to as the “mother of reform” and affectionately, “Sister Wan”. In 2008, Azizah was awarded the honour of the order of the Defender of the State, which bestows the title “Dato’ Seri”.

She hosts a family dinner once a week for her six children and nine grandchildren. On her Instagram account (515k followers), she posts pictures of a conference on entrepreneurship among women, a meeting of a cabinet anti-drug committee, the local football team (she proudly wears the jersey), visits to the market, as well as motivational quotes and encouragement. Via this thoroughly modern medium, she reveals her warmth, her compassion, her gift for diplomacy and her sense of humour. Describing how she felt catapulted into a life she hadn’t envisioned, Dr Azizah said: “I’ve always been behind the scenes. My priorities have been as a mother and a wife. You do your work. You contribute to society because we are all part of society.”

As Malaysia enjoys an economic boom and moves towards a free democracy, this well-loved politician and RCSI alumna continues to push for equality and fairness. Those politicians who follow in her wake, some women, but still mostly men, can learn from her unique leadership style. n

27

CLOSELY ASSOCIATED The demand for Physician Associates in Ireland is expected to grow. RCSI has taken the initiative and established the first MSc programme in Physician Associate Studies.

Valerie Ryan reports

28

T

he Physician Associate Studies programme at RCSI hit the ground running last summer, when the first group of six Physician Associates graduated with their MSc in Physician Associate Studies. What soon became clear is that there is growing demand for these roles in the health services.

Thirteen more Physician Associates (PAs) will follow in their footsteps when they graduate on May 29 this year, and already the majority have been offered employment in hospitals such as Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, the Galway Clinic, Mater Private, Cork and in primary care.

Following in their wake, the College welcomed a fourth cohort of Physician Associate Students in January this year. Across the two-year MSc programme, there are ten first year students on year one at present, and another ten second

The first class of Physician Associates at RCSI graduated in 2018. From left: Alexandra Troy, Maria Macken, Jessica Maddock, Michael James Tracey, Ciara Melia, Trish Anderson.

PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATES

year students. The College defines the role of PAs as supporting doctors in the diagnosis and management of patients. They are trained to perform a number of roles including taking medical histories, performing examinations, making diagnoses and analysing test results. Crucially, from the patient’s perspective, the continuity of care a PA can provide is stressed as it is frequently absent in other healthcare roles.

While RCSI was first in Ireland to establish a PA programme in 2015, it is 50 years since the first PA programmes started up in the US, and ten years since the first courses opened in the UK in 2008.

“There are now more than 131,000 American PAs employed across a wide range of healthcare settings. In the UK, there are more than 35 programmes and almost 1,000 qualified PAs,” according to RCSI Chief Executive, Professor Cathal Kelly.

What helped pave the way for the introduction of the first Irish Physician Associate programme at RCSI were the experiences of Irish surgeons in the US healthcare system who were used to working with PAs. “What we have to remember is that a lot of Irish surgeons had trained in the US and knew the value PAs brought to healthcare,” says RCSI PA Programme Director, Professor Denni Woodmansee, former Director of PA Veteran Affairs Washington DC. “But the first PA cohort were brave to take on their studies with no guarantees of a job,” he added.

Now the country’s first PAs are settling into diverse roles, preparing theatre lists, interpreting results, working in clinics, on wards and in theatre. Their enthusiasm for the job and working as part of a team is clearly genuine.

Working with Professor Deborah McNamara, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, PA Alexandra Troy from Dublin says, “I had an opportunity to complete my BSc in Athletic Training and Therapy in the US. While studying there, I first learned about the PA profession. I was truly ecstatic when I heard RCSI was pioneering this new programme because now I could pursue my preferred career path”. Troy relishes her job doing two clinics each week, spending most of every day on the ward and a day in theatre every few weeks.

Jessica Maddock, who works with Professor Anthony Cunningham at the Galway Clinic is equally enthusiastic about her role. She undertakes a good deal of pre-assessment duties, working with six different consultants.

A TCD graduate with a BA in Natural Sciences, Zoology, she was encouraged to train as a PA by her father, who is a medic, and now her brother has also become a PA. Another member of the first group of PAs, Ciara Melia, graduated with a BSc in Microbiology from NUI Galway and now works with Professor Arnold Hill, an RCSI Physician Associate Programme Sponsor and General & Breast Surgeon at Beaumont Hospital. Melia explains that the course is intense and fast paced. “You need to be able to communicate effectively and put both your patients and team at ease,” she says.

Attending last summer’s graduation ceremony at RCSI was Visiting Professor, Professor Ruth Ballweg, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, one of the first women Physician Associates in the US and the recipient of the two highest awards in the PA profession. From her lifetime perspective as a PA, she believes a Physician Associate programme should adapt to the specific needs of a country.

Like so many innovations in medicine, the PAs had their origin in the

military. “The original PAs were all (medical) corpsmen who were returning from Vietnam. Regardless of what American people may have felt about the Vietnam war, they thought the real heroes were the corpsmen. They were in with the Special Forces, had an additional year’s training and were trained to do surgery,” she explained. On their return, these medical corpsmen whose special training was for the battlefield, had no specific role. At the same time in the US, there were many rural areas where there weren’t any doctors, or doctors were burnt out and leaving, and it was then that PAs took on a role supporting doctors. They ended up being very successful working with singlehanded rural doctors, and are still very popular today.

In the beginning, Professor Ballweg says, PAs were data collectors, taking very detailed histories and carrying out thorough physicals, but it was up to the doctor they worked with to decide what they did. At the same time, the overriding principle was that the doctor they worked with was always available for consultation. Legally, it was a hierarchical but collaborative relationship and this framework has continued to this day. More and more, nursing had developed its own model with different vocabulary and different terminology, but the doctor and the PA continued to be trained in the medical model.

THEY ARE TRAINED TO PERFORM A NUMBER OF ROLES INCLUDING TAKING MEDICAL HISTORIES, PERFORMING EXAMINATIONS, MAKING DIAGNOSES AND ANALYSING TEST RESULTS. The PA worked in the hospital and community services, and throughout primary care. Data has shown that a PA could undertake up to 80 per cent of the routine tasks in a general practice, with GP support.

Professor Ballweg explained the divergence of the titles. In the US, the American Medical Association had considered the term “Physician Associate” too collegial and settled instead on “Physician Assistant”.

As soon as US PAs started to work in Britain, and wanted to become members of the Royal College of Physicians, they suggested the name should be changed to “Physician Associate” because it conferred more credibility.

Training for Physician Associate students at RCSI is a Level 9 masters degree, and is full-time over a two-year period. With a balance of theory and practice, students complete up to 50 weeks of clinical practice during the programme across years one and two.

A number of elements are a given in a PA curriculum – continuous attendance is required and there is a lot of feedback throughout. “Typically, there are twice the number of hours of communications skills than you would see in medical school,” said Professor Ballweg.

Applications to the fifth programme are currently being accepted for January 2020. Applicants should have a Level 8 health science or sciencerelated degree with a minimum 2.2 award or equivalent qualification, rcsi.ie/pa.

RCSI PA Programme Director is Professor Denni Woodmansee, Programme Medical Director is Professor Paul O’Neill, Programme Sponsor is Professor Arnold Hill while the Academic Director is Dr Pauline Joyce, and Programme Co-ordinator is Clare Manning. ^

29

A PICTURE’S WORTH

Women on Walls at RCSI, in partnership with Accenture, recognises the pioneering achievements of a group of extraordinary women and enhances the visibility of historical female leaders in healthcare. The eight portraits were unveiled in the Boardroom at RCSI this March

“R

espect, Collaboration, Scholarship and Innovation” are the values of RCSI and central to “Respect and Collaboration” is a deep commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, including gender equality in the workplace. By acknowledging the exceptional contribution of female doctors and nurses, future generations of women are inspired to contribute to and excel in the healthcare community.

To reflect that commitment, RCSI set out to commission portraits of exceptional female alumni. In March 2018, portrait artists were invited to submit a proposal to Business to Arts, project managers of the initiative. A selection committee identified six artists who were commissioned to paint the eight portraits. The artists worked with RCSI archivists to research their subjects and complete the portraits which now hang proudly in the Boardroom of RCSI’s historic building on St. Stephen’s Green.

The portraits were officially unveiled at RCSI by Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD and RCSI President Mr Kenneth Mealy. Speaking at the unveiling, Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor said, “Women on Walls recognises the pioneering achievements of eight extraordinary women and enhances the visibility of historical female leaders in healthcare. This project reminds us of remarkable women who are largely unknown outside their specialist fields. Eight women who were pioneers in medicine and science. All eight shared a compassion and care for humanity which was as a result of their training as nurses and physicians at RCSI. Throughout their careers they faced gender-based discrimination, refusals, obstacles and insults, however they persevered and achieved great things. It is a real honour to unveil their paintings here this afternoon.”

Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI said, “We are immensely proud to unveil these portraits of groundbreaking RCSI women. These pioneers made significant contributions to education and healthcare here

30

Commissioned artists (left to right): Benita Stoney, Mick O’Dea RHA, Molly Judd, Catherine Creaney and Enda Griffin (William Nathans not pictured)

at RCSI, in Ireland and much further afield. We hope that by recognising them through this landmark initiative, we might inspire future generations of women and girls to pursue a career in healthcare and science.

“Each of these women had a profound impact and we want history to remember their legacy. It is our duty to help preserve their story and celebrate their achievements. It is right and proper that today they take their place not just on these storied walls of RCSI but also in the history of healthcare.”

A new Women on Walls podcast series was announced during the unveiling. The eight-part series celebrates the lives of these eight Irish women who forged careers in healthcare during a time in Ireland when women were expected to stay at home. Women on Walls is now available for download from Apple, Google and Spotify podcasts.

You can read more about Women on Walls at RCSI in partnership with Accenture and view the portraits by visiting accenture.com/womenonwalls and women.rcsi.com n

WOMEN ON WALLS

Dean Mary Frances Crowley (1906 -1990)

by William Nathans

Dr Mary Somerville Parker Strangman (1872 -1943)

by Mick O’Dea

DR VICTORIA COFFEY was the first female President of the Irish and Irish American Paediatric Association and one of the first female paediatricians in Ireland to investigate Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. DEAN MARY FRANCES CROWLEY was the founder and first Dean of RCSI’s Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery. DR EMILY WINIFRED DICKSON was the first female fellow in surgery in Ireland and the UK. DR MARGARET (PEARL) DUNLEVY was the lynchpin of Dublin’s tuberculosis immunisation programme. DR MARY JOSEPHINE HANNAN was the first woman to train at and qualify from RCSI. SR & DR MAURA LYNCH dedicated her life to missionary work in Angola and Uganda, and established a pioneering fistula repair programme.

DR BARBARA MAIVE STOKES was a paediatrician and change-making disability campaigner.

DR MARY SOMERVILLE PARKER STRANGMAN was Waterford’s first female councillor, a suffragette and campaigner for women’s and public health services.

Dr Victoria Coffey (1911-1999)

by Molly Judd

Dr Barbara Maive Stokes (1922-2009)

by Catherine Creaney

Dr Margaret (Pearl) Dunlevy (1909-2002)

by Benita Stoney

Dr Mary Josephine Hannan (1859-1936)

by Molly Judd

Sr & Dr Maura Lynch (1938-2017)

by Enda Griffin

Dr Emily Winifred Dickson (1866 -1944)

by Mick O’Dea

31

A LIFE’S WORK Professor Dr Mohammed Rafik Gardee, MBE (Medicine, 1966) has dedicated 40 years to the compassionate practice of medicine in primary healthcare, across continents and countries, and highlighted the inequality and lack of opportunities for ethnic minorities working in the NHS

T

he family of Professor Rafik Gardee, who completed his degree at RCSI in 1966, refer to themselves as a “mini United Nations” which is diverse in its composition and spread, with members scattered all over Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. They are all the progeny, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of one extraordinary man, Mohammed Gardee, who migrated from India to South Africa in 1908. Mohammed was both entrepreneur and philanthropist, a successful small business owner who used his relative prosperity to improve the lot of the underprivileged community he served. He settled close to White River in the Transvaal Lowveld (now called the Mpumalanga Lowveld) and his generosity led to the first wellbeing clinic being built in the area. The clinic was also the first medical clinic for black people in the region. Although he was not a medic himself, Mohammed, via his philanthropic work, created a tradition of involvement in primary healthcare which several of his descendants would follow – many are doctors, nurses, or somehow involved in public service.

This strong tradition certainly inspired Rafik’s work over almost four decades.

“The philanthropic vein that has underpinned my healthcare endeavours was largely inspired by my grandfather and his legacy of uplifting communities and backing the disenfranchised remain a guiding inspiration. His story and by extension my own, demonstrates that when the circle of opportunity is widened, communities are made stronger.”

Rafik experienced inequality firsthand, growing up in South Africa under the apartheid regime. After high school in Johannesburg, where he was already somewhat politically active, he persuaded his parents that he should study at RCSI in Dublin and he took to the freedom of the city with gusto, embracing the “respect, kindness and assimilation” of the RCSI community. He became President of the Student Council and had what he describes as “a ball of a time” even visiting the United Nations Student Association in Geneva as an “Irish” delegate. After his graduation from RCSI, Rafik worked in Ireland for four years, for some of that time at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin and Holles Street Hospital. He singles out for particular praise the Medical Missionaries of Mary who then operated Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, their commitment to healthcare excellence and their pioneering work in surgery abroad, particularly in Africa.

Rafik returned to South Africa in 1970 and settled in White River, a town in what was then known as the Eastern Transvaal, about 20 miles from Kruger National Park. He practised as a GP but, because of increasingly repressive

32

Professor Dr Rafik Gardee

“RCSI PREPARED ME FOR MY CAREER WITH WONDERFUL TEACHING AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN UNDER BRILLIANT CLINICAL LEADERS.” apartheid laws, was only allowed to treat non-whites under dire circumstances – the government clinics were under-resourced and ill equipped.

Rafik set up a series of well-equipped clinics in the region, at his own cost, and soon had five separate premises, with nurses he had trained as medical assistants, seeing 80-100 patients a day. Looking after impoverished and disenfranchised communities in rural areas, Rafik prioritised the provision of health care for the underserved non-white community. However, this brought him to the attention of the authorities. When, in 1977, the apartheid regime stepped up its action against opposition groups, and his clinics were raided, Rafik was forced to leave. “They gave me 24 hours to leave the country.”

The most difficult aspect of his expulsion was leaving his patients behind to an uncertain fate. “Remember, our clinics were serving the non-white communities in an area half the size of Ireland. We not only provided diagnosis and treatment but also started initiatives to reach parents by providing simple handheld clinic records of their children’s health issues (a first of its kind in South Africa), targeting preventable diseases. We also made strides in mental

ACHIEVEMENT

Rafik and Rashida Gardee with Nelson Mandela, discussing “Ubuntu” - the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. xxx xxxxxx

of Bosnian refugees, as well as initiatives benefiting other asylum seekers and traveller communities.

Teaching undergraduates and postgraduates in Public Health Medicine at the University of Glasgow, Rafik was responsible for the delivery of a module in Global Health for the university’s master’s degree in Public Health. He mentored close to 3,000 postgraduate students and has IN 2005, HE WAS AWARDED AN been a visiting professor at number of MBE FOR HIS YEARS OF ADVOCACY other institutions. He was awarded the Sir Earnest Oppenheimer Memorial Rafik and AND LEADERSHIP IN THE AREA OF Rashida Gardee at Trust Grant, a South African MULTICULTURAL HEALTH. a NGO dinner scholarship for the pursuit of studies benefiting South Africa. In 2005, he was awarded an MBE for his years of advocacy and leadership in the area of health awareness and treatment, working with traditional practitioners.” multicultural health.

From South Africa, Rafik (who had completed a master’s in Public Health Rafik was a non-executive director of Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance, in 1971) went to Glasgow, in Scotland, where he quickly realised that growing Scotland, as well as an adviser to the Diabetes Prevention Group for South ethnic minority populations were presenting cultural and language problems Asians, to Diabetes UK, and to Ethnic Enable, Scotland. Technically retired for health professionals in the NHS. This was a fundamental issue that needed since 2007, he maintains an active commitment to community and to the to be addressed. With a more diverse workforce, the NHS could better serve stewardship of public health, working with several institutions in Canada, their increasingly diverse range of patients. And so began the second part of his South Africa and the UK. He is still director of Enabling People, Scotland career, advocating for better public health for disadvantaged patients through and UK Welltime Ltd. Having lived and travelled throughout Europe, North community engagement and participation as well as better opportunities America, the East and Africa, Rafik now resides between South Africa and the for medical professionals of every ethnic origin. Three decades in the NHS UK, depending on his international commitments. resulted in a massive body of work on policy and implementation across the Rafik acknowledges that while much was achieved in the NHS over 30 public healthcare system. “Of all my efforts, I am immensely proud of having years, both in public policy and practice, there is still progress to be made. conceptualised and facilitated the Fair for All report for Scotland. The report, “A monolith like the NHS does not change its culture and practice overnight essentially the fruit of over 30 years of service in the NHS, highlighted the but there is a journey towards equity and fairness. Other considerations have policies and practices of NHS Scotland with respect to minority and ethnic been added to the ethnicity issue – the gender issue, general equality and communities, in order to address discrimination and prejudice.” This report diversity for all people, including the elderly. All are deserving of attention, but led to the formation of the National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minorities the issue of race tends to be diluted as a system endeavours to implement best in 2002 which developed sensitive and culturally competent services based practice across all these areas.” on real community needs. The Centre was recognised for its work with an He points out that there is still a high unemployment rate for ethnic Al-Maktoum Exceptional Award for Multicultural Healthcare. minorities among lower echelons in the health sector. “There has also been a In a first for Scotland, Rafik also established a “one-stop mental health lack of recognition at an international level for the work of health professionals clinic” for ethnic communities which made use of both eastern and western in Africa and Asia, or of African or Asian ethnicity elsewhere. He also suggests social-wellbeing support to deliver a holistic approach to healthcare. that the lack of representation of ethnic minorities on medical school councils Rafik was also a public health adviser for the Dene people, a First Nations can negatively impact how the schools are viewed in Asia, Africa and the community in the Northwest Territory of Canada with significant health Middle East. “A more diverse Council at RCSI is essential as its policy-making concerns due to uranium mining and landscape change. “The Dene people role within the 21st century is consolidated. carried the uranium rocks used for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs on “RCSI prepared me for my career with wonderful, practical teaching and the their backs, and had also slept on the rocks. As a minority, they had been opportunity to learn under excellent clinical leaders. I remember my time there failed by the then federal government who did not provide proper protection with fondness. I would not have achieved anything without the caring support and support to them specifically.” The Denes had also adopted more typically of Irish and Scottish friends, as well as my immediate family, in particular western behaviours of drinking, drug-taking and smoking, so there were many my late parents, and my wife, Rashida, who had very little control over this challenges, from an advocacy and treatment point of view. In Scotland, Rafik’s ‘maverick medic’ but ensured I never gave up on the communities I served.” ^ involvement in ethnic minority health included making plans for the reception

33

GRACE O’FLANAGAN Medicine 2016 Home: Ireland Back for: Hockey World Cup Celebration – the Irish Ladies’ team were runners up in London in August 2018 “It was great to be back at RCSI with current student, Emily Beatty (on my right) to celebrate our silver medals and to present the College with a signed World Cup jersey. It was my first time back on the famous front steps since graduating – I’ll always associate them with special achievements and dreams realised.”

FADI CHIKH TORAB AND RAMI ALHAKIM Both Medicine 2008 – RCSI Bahrain Home: Bahrain Back for: Shaikh Nasser University Championships “Great to be back on campus, even if it has been for just a few months, to provide medical cover for the men’s football team during the championships. We are currently interning at King Hamad University Hospital. Life is good!”

CAUGHT ON CAMPUS Alumni don’t need a reason to return but when they do, they get stuck in.

We capture some alumni encounters ...

CAMILLA CARROLL Medicine 1985, FRCSI Home: Ireland Back for: 86th Inaugural Biological Society Meeting “Delighted to be the President of the Biological Society, the College’s oldest and most prestigious society. Pictured here with Dare Alabi (Medicine, Class of 2018), previous Student Union VP and currently completing his internship with a view to training as an ENT Surgeon!”

MARILYN OSANIFE Medicine 1986 Home: Nigeria Back for: Her son’s RCSI graduation “It was a special and unique pride that I felt as I witnessed our son graduating as a medical doctor from my alma mater. And yet another surge of pride as we toured the breathtaking new ten-storey RCSI building, 26 York Street, the evolving excellence of RCSI evident at every point.”

GERRY MEACHERY Medicine 1993 Home: UK Back for: Class of 1993 Reunion “Our reunion was a tremendously wonderful occasion which renewed and strengthened so many friendships, not just within our Class but with other College friends and members of staff (as seen in in this photo with Frank Donegan and Terry Slattery) who made an enormous impact on our college life and experience. My wife Gráinne Gorman (Medicine, 1997) and I continue to cherish our experiences and friendships from RCSI.” 34

ALUMNI ENCOUNTERS

LOGESWARAN SELVARAJAH Medicine 2014, MRCPI 2017, MRCSI 2018 Home: Malaysia Back for: MRCSI Conferring “I’m now a proud member of both the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians in Ireland.”

MIRIAM KERINS HUSSEY Pharmacy 2007 Home: Ireland Back for: School of Pharmacy Guest Lecture “It was a real honour and privilege to return to RCSI more than ten+ years after graduating and speak to current RCSI students. RCSI awarded me the credibility and the backbone to really explore health, enabling me to bridge the gap between clinical health and personal wellness. I now primarily focus my career on Integrative Health and Wellness, supporting my clients to become the best versions of themselves through nutrition, mindfulness, and preventive medicine.”

ARAN MAREE Medicine 1993 Home: USA Back for: Opening of 26 York Street with Michael R. Bloomberg “The opening of 26 York Street was a brilliant event and I was delighted to be there for such a historic moment.

As Michael R. Bloomberg himself commented, “26 York Street will help raise the bar for teaching institutions around the world, which can save millions of lives.”

MAX TREACY & EMMA DUIGNAN Both Medicine 2011 Home: UK Back for: RCSI Fellowship Conferring “Max and I were happy to be celebrating another graduation in RCSI when he received his Fellowship in Ophthalmic Surgery, with our daughter Freya in tow. We have now moved to London to complete our training in Moorfields Eye Hospital, the oldest eye hospital in Europe and probably the most famous in the world, but we look forward to returning to Dublin and the College in the future.”

VINOD PATEL Medicine 1968 Home: Canada Back for: Class of 1968 Reunion “Always such a pleasure to attend the class reunion weekends, especially this year being our jubilee celebration. It was also a very memorable visit for my grandson and daughter – my grandson now wants to study medicine at RCSI as a result! For me, it was great to relive the fond memories of my time in Dublin and rekindle friendships with classmates. The progress made by the College has been striking, it is perhaps one of the most advanced and modern institutions in the world.”

JULIAH TBARANI O’SHEA Medicine 2004 – PMC/RCSI Home: Ireland Back for: RCSI Foley Lecture 2018, delivered by Growth Mindset’s author Professor S. Carol Dweck “Great to be back in RCSI (with my classmate, Emily Boyle) for this excellent talk by Professor Dweck in the fantastic new 26 York Street. So proud to be part of the College’s history, and already looking forward to the Class of 2004’s reunion this August!”

35

Robert Harrison

CLASS CALL

At RCSI, we love to hear news about your career achievements and information about you and your life after college. Find out what some of your classmates have been doing here ...

Julian Davis (right)

Fatema Abdulwahab

2010s n DENISE O’BRIEN-MURPHY (MSc 2017 - RCSI Roaya Khalaf Dublin) and her husband Jamie welcomed their son, James with her parents Donncadh Murphy, to the world on June 13th 2018. n MARIANNE GARVEY MCMAHON (MSc 2016 RCSI Dublin) was awarded Honorary Associate from the RCSI Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery in 2017 and conferred a Fellow of the Faculty in December 2018. In February 2019, she presented her research at the Faculty’s annual conference, outlining the deficits in health services for those with intellectual disabilities in Ireland. n FATEMA ABDULWAHAB (MSc 2016 - RCSI Dublin) is currently working as Research Assistant in RCSI - Bahrain. n KHALED AL HARMOUDI (Medicine, 2016, MSc 2018 RCSI Dubai) delivered the valedictory address at his RCSI Dubai graduation in November 2018: “It is with a deep sense of pride that I make this announcement to you; the fulfilment of a dream has come to pass. When I enrolled to study medicine in RCSI, the last thing on my mind before leaving Dublin was earning a graduate degree several years later, and today I have.” n KEVIN MCKENNA (PhD 2015 RCSI Dublin) was recognised at the Fáilte Ireland Conference Awards in November 2018 for his pivotal role in bringing to Ireland both the 5th International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector in 2016 and, in 2017, the 10th European Congress on Violence in Clinical Psychiatry, cumulatively welcoming more than 1,100 delegates from 58 countries. n ROAYA KHALAF (Medicine, 2014 - RCSI Bahrain): “I am extremely proud to state that I am the first Bahraini to obtain the Silver Medal Award in Clinical Neuroscience at King’s College London. It is certainly an honour and privilege to be representing my home country of Bahrain, and even more so, to be representing the growing illustrious image of modern Bahraini women.” n JULIAN DAVIS (Medicine, 2012): “I completed my Hematology/Oncology Fellowship (2015-2018)

36

Khaled Al Harmoudi

Michael Cawley, Chairman of Fáilte Ireland, with Dr Kevin McKenna

Denise O’Brien-Murphy and family

at at the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center in Sacramento. I am now back in my hometown of Santa Barbara, CA, working at the Ridley Tree Cancer Center and focusing on hematologic malignancies and advanced skin cancers like melanoma. I was able to connect with Drs Breathnach (pictured right) and Grogan at ASCO 2017, both of whom I had spent time with at Connolly Hospital as a student.

My wife Jenna and I are expecting our first child this July.” n CAITHRÍONA YEOMANS (Physiotherapy, 2010), after working in private practice in Ireland and completing a masters in the UK and in 2016, she joined the University of Limerick as a PhD researcher on the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (IRIS) Project. IRIS, in collaboration with the Irish Rugby Football Union, investigates injury trends within amateur rugby in Ireland. In 2018, she published three papers, presented her work both nationally and internationally, and won the Best Poster Award at the Health Research Institute (HRI) Research Day 2018. n JOAN NOELKER (Medicine, 2010), an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in

CLASS NOTES

Caithríona Yeomans

St Louis, was one of four awardees of the American College of Emergency Medicine National Junior Faculty Teaching Award. n FERGAL O’SHAUGHNESSY (Pharmacy, 2010, MPharm 2011), Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, received a 2018 Fulbright Scholarship to visit Columbia University in New York in order to develop methods to identify women who are at risk of developing potentially life-threatening blood clots after childbirth.

Fergal O’Shaughnessy

Joan Noelker

2000s CATHERINE MARY ABOU-ZAID (MSc 2009 - RCSI Bahrain) was awarded her Doctorate Degree in Higher Education from Liverpool University in 2018 for her thesis on Nurse Mentorship in Bahrain. Dr Abou-Zaid is in charge of the in-service education and CPD department Felipe at the Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Sulman Al Khalifa Dilip Dhupelia and Contepomi RCSI Khaldoon Alsaee Cardiac Centre, as well as external lecturer at Fulbright Scholars, Cian O’Leary and RCSI Bahrain. n MOHAMMED SALMAN Michelle Flood ALMALIKI (MSc 2009 - RCSI Bahrain) is a Floating Doctors Paediatric Specialist in Al Kindi Specialised Hospital, Bahrain. In November 2018, he proudly chaired the Al Kindi Second Paediatric Conference, under the Patronage of H.E. Faeqa Bint Saeed Al Saleh, Bahrain Minister of Health, attended by more than 260 healthcare providers. n KHALDOON ALSAEE (Medicine, 2007) met Catherine Mary Abou-Zaid with Dilip Dhupelia (Medicine, 1976) “randomly Jenny Copeland Mohammed on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Dilip Wael Berro Salman Almaliki is also the President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Queensland. A proud moment!” based approaches to define and solve n WAEL BERRO (Medicine, 2006), Family Medicine complex health care problems.

Consultant, has been promoted to the role of Medical Director n FELIPE CONTEPOMI (Medicine, at King’s College Hospital London - Jumeirah Clinics in Dubai, 2007) has returned to Ireland as UAE. n From earthquake-struck Haiti to the jungles of Leinster’s new backs coach.

Panama, BENJAMIN LA BROT (Medicine, 2006) and Dr Contepomi made 116 appearances RYAN MCCORMICK (Medicine, 2014) captain ‘Floating for Leinster after joining in 2003, Doctors’, a volunteer-based organisation providing free and helped the province to their maiden Heineken Cup title in 2009. health services and community development assistance to remote, n JENNY COPELAND (née Kellett) (Physiotherapy, 2005) is part underserved communities. International teams are deployed of a team, Ireland on Everest, currently on its way to the summit of year-round to provide ongoing assistance, plus they have a clinical Mount Everest – aiming to arrive May 2019. The team has climbed elective programme for students or junior doctors to develop their Mera Peak (6,500m) and Island Peak (6,200) in the Himalayas in 2017, international and tropical medicine. They are seeking crewmates and Denali summit (6,200m), North America’s highest mountain, for short/long term missions as well as staff positions, and would in 2018. Ms Copeland, a mum of four who has worked with children be delighted to hear from interested RCSI alumni and students. with disabilities since graduation, and the team are climbing in aid floatingdoctors.com n MICHELLE FLOOD (Pharmacy, 2006, MSc of Barretstown. irelandoneverest.ie n JULIAH TBARANI O’SHEA 2010, PG Dip 2018), Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy, received a (Medicine, 2004 - PMC/RCSI), an Irish-based GP with an interest in 2018 Fulbright Scholarship which enabled her to visit the University aesthetic medicine, recently established an Instagram profile of Texas in summer 2018 to apply creative, human-centred, design-

37

The Ommundsen family

@DrFitnessMum aiming to encourage, motivate, and educate her followers to live a healthier lifestyle, and also to practice what she preaches! n Pictured with their four children are NURUL AZYANTI AZIZ NORULZAMAN, a Consultant Ophthalmologist, and KENNETH OMMUNDSEN, a Consultant Otolaryngologist (both Medicine, 2003). She is based at Stavanger University Hospital, Norway, while he has recently left the hospital to open his own private ENT clinic. n ANGELA MCGOWAN (née Thomas) (Medicine, 2003): “I received my Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in September 2018 and celebrated the birth of our daughter Eibhlín Lily McGowan on 24th April. Pictured here at the fellowship admissions ceremony with my husband Martin and Eibhlín.” n VICTOR PEÑA-ARAUJO (Medicine, 2002) is the founder of ELITE Personalized Health, a boutique health coaching company in Texas, USA. In 2018 he was among the world’s first Diplomates of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. As of 2019, he is the Director of Health & Wellness at Taste of Travel, a health and wellness retreat specialist company based in top locations worldwide. n FARHAD JANAHI (Medicine, 2002, MD 2008, FRCSI 2012), Assistant Professor of Surgery at Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital, along with David Hickey (FRCSI, 1983), Professor of Surgery at the hospital, led Dubai’s first paediatric surgical kidney transplant in November 2018. A landmark moment for paediatric healthcare in the UAE. n JAMES PAUL O’NEILL (Medicine, 2001, FRCSI 2010) was awarded the Consultant Trainer of the Year 2018 by the Irish Otolaryngology

Angela McGowan James Paul O’Neill

Victor Peña-Araujo

John O’Dwyer

Head and Neck Surgery at the Royal Academy of Medicines Ireland. n JOHN O’DWYER (Medicine, 2001), GP Principal, Trainer and ICGP CME tutor, is taking a four-month sabbatical from normal GP practice in Ireland to volunteer with Floating Doctors (founded by fellow RCSI graduate, Benjamin La Brot). From March - June 2019, he is working as a Lead Medical Provider in Bocas del Toro Province, Panama. His wife and six children have accompanied him on this fantastic adventure - one he highly recommends to other RCSI graduates.

1990s BRIAN KENNEDY (Medicine, 1999), Member of the UK Faculty of Clinical Informatics, enrolled as part of the first cohort of the NHS Digital Academy, established by Lord Ara Darzi (Medicine, 1984, FRCSI 1990) to train digital leaders in the NHS. Hoping to achieve an MSc by 2020, his course-mandated transformational project is to introduce a new selfrostering system and software package to the Emergency Department at MEHT. n RUZIAH (JOY) IBRAHIM (Medicine, 1998) recently joined the RUMC academic faculty, as Lecturer in Clinical Competencies, in Perdana, Malaysia. Prior to this she was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. She says she is really proud to be working for her alma mater, RCSI. n SHALINI O’CONNOR (née Seegobin) (Medicine, 1996): “I am a specialist in General Practice, currently working as a Student Health Doctor for university students in DCU as well as in part-time GP locum sessions. My academic achievements to date include MRCGP (UK), Diploma in Child Care, Diploma in Clinical Psychiatry, and Master’s Degree in Public Health Medicine.” n MARK ROGAN (Medicine, 1996) of the Irish Medical Football Team with Paul Dhillon (Medicine, 2009), Manager of the Canadian Medical Football Team is pictured, at the 24th Annual World Medical Football Championships 2018 and Symposium on Sport and Medicine in Prague,

38

Max Ryan.

Brian Kennedy

Dato Dr Hamzah, Head of Cardiothoracic services Malaysia; Jamalul Azizi; Dato Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General of Health Malaysia; and Gerard Meachery XXXXXXXXXXXX

Shalini O’Connor Mark Rogan

CLASS NOTES

Czech Republic. n GERARD MEACHERY (Medicine, 1993), Consultant in Respiratory and Transplant Medicine, Medical Lead for Lung Transplant Service, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, pictured meeting with the Director General of Health of Malaysia to discuss issues pertaining

to challenges in organ transplantation in Malaysia and to share his own team’s experience and expertise in this area. This meeting was organised by Jamalul Azizi (Medicine, 1989), Consultant Respiratory Physician, Serdang Hospital Malaysia and Head of Respiratory Services, Malaysia.

1980s NADEEM MOGHAL (Medicine, 1989), having been inspired at a conference in RCSI last year, has established The Journal of Medical Professionalism, an online, free-to-access, free-to-contribute mix of original pieces, invited opinion, curated articles with commentary, video blogs, book reviews and debate. n TG TEOH (Medicine, 1987) has been promoted from Adjunct Professor to Professor of Practice, Divisional Director Nadeem Moghal Women’s Children’s & Clinical Support, Imperial College Healthcare London. n HARALD G. SUNDE Mayilone Arumugasamy and Antonia Lehane (Medicine, 1983), Medical Director, Finnmarkssykehuset Health Trust in arctic Norway, was awarded Finnmark Doctor of the Year 2018 by Finnmark Medical Association, for his work locally and his profound local historical interest. Known as Harry O’Sundaigh to friends, he also published a book, Harald G. Sunde In the Footsteps of the Finnmark Partisans, describing the Lesley Poku-Ware actions and faith of the Soviet-attached resistance fighters and intelligence agents in Finnmark during WW2. n DERMOT KENNY (Medicine, 1982), Professor of Cardiovascular Biology, RCSI reports, “Together with my group at RCSI and investigators from the Irish Centre Dermot Kenny for Vascular Biology, we have recently published a major paper in the high-impact journal, Blood. This paper explains, for the first time, why people with blood group O are less at risk of myocardial infarction.

Using novel technologies, developed in RCSI with Stanford University, Association (2016-2018), Mayilone Arumugasamy (Medicine, 1993, FRCSI we demonstrated that platelets in blood group O move faster and travel 1997). n LESLEY POKU-WARE (Medicine, 1981) has been appointed further at arterial shear.” n ANTONIA LEHANE (Medicine, 1982) has Ghanaian Ambassador to Russia. She spent most of her early working life been elected the new President of the RCSI Association of Medical & as a GP in the UK until she returned to Ghana in 2010. She is also Chair Dental Graduates. She is pictured with immediate Past President of the of Petronia City, a self-sufficient integrated city.

1970s ROLF KIRSCHNER (Medicine, 1971) has received the UEMS highest honour, a Gold Decoration of Honour. He has an Honorary Fellowship of the European Board and College of Obstetrics Rolf Kirschner and Gynaecology (EBCOG), and is a Fellow of the European Society of Sexual Medicine. As a representative of the Norwegian Society, he has been at the forefront in representing both the EBCOG as well as the European Network of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology on boards, committees and in

accreditation. n HIMMET DAJEE (Medicine, 1974) has published A Boy Named Courage: A Surgeon’s Memoir of Apartheid. The book chronicles the heart-breaking and triumphant story of Dr Dajee’s quest to overcome racism Himmet Dajee and oppression to find his place in the world and escape the shadow of his troubled homeland. n DILIP DHUPELIA (Medicine, 1976) has been elected the new AMA Queensland President. Dr Dhupelia is the Director of Medical

39

CLASS NOTES

Dilip Dhupelia

and Clinical Services for Queensland Country Practice, Queensland Rural Medical Service for Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service and works part time as a GP in Toowong in Brisbane’s inner west. He has a particular interest in rural and remote health issues, having worked for many years in regional areas. n ISAAC STERN (Medicine, 1979), “As a resident of Safed, in the Northern Galilee, Israel, I have witnessed how the medical staff of Ziv Hospital, where I did my internship and worked for many years, have treated and saved the lives of thousands of Syrian refugees, mainly children, badly wounded in a

Isaac Stern

war unconnected with Israel. I am immensely proud to share with you our exceptional, rarely publicised humanitarian gesture to citizens of an enemy state.”

1960s

JAMES I. HARTY FRCSI (Medicine, 1969) retired from practice on his 72nd birthday. From 1996 - 2001 he was Chairman of the Division of Urology at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. n ISMAIL MINTY (Dentistry, 1965, Medicine, 1975) was born in Klerksdorp, North West Province, and was the first non-white dentist in South Africa and one of the only non-whites with a double degree in his field. He was also the co-founder and treasurer of the Irish Anti-Apartheid movement. At 83, he is now retired, and still living in South Africa. n ROMESH MOOTOO (Medicine, 1961)

Romesh Mootoo

Ismail Minty with his grandson

is still in practice as a GP in Trinidad, and recently received a national award, the Chaconia Medal (Gold), for his long and meritorious service as a doctor and politician.

1950s & 1940s Medicine, 1958: David Brown, John McGlade, Rupert Bobart, John Fitzgerald and Oliver Hunter

John Hanna and Randall Black with RCSI staff

Pictured are Medicine, 1958 graduates celebrating their 60 years since graduation at the Jubilee Lunch as part of the Alumni Gathering 2018.

We were also delighted to welcome two Medicine, 1946 graduates, JOHN HANNA and RANDALL BLACK, back again for this year’s Jubilee Lunch. Pictured here at their 70th reunion in 2016.

We will miss ...

MARVIN LATCHANA (Medicine, 1971) of Fenton Township, aged 73, sadly passed away on 24 December 2018. Following graduation from RCSI, and serving as Chief Resident at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, MI, Dr Latchana practiced internal medicine in Marvin Latchana Flint for 32 years, until his retirement in 2010. In addition to caring for his patients, he was an Assistant Clinical Professor at MSU Medical School. [Submitted by his son, David Latchana]

n ARTHUR LAWRENCE DOENECKE (Medicine, 1972) passed away on 24 September 2018. “He was very active in his class alumni activities and was always talking about his experiences at the College and all the friends he had made there.” [Submitted by his wife, Norma Arthur Lawrence Doenecke] n PETER O’FLANAGAN (Medicine, 1945) Doenecke passed away on 5 March 2018. His eulogy read: “He had a fierce intelligence so it was no surprise to his mother, a nurse, when he got a place at ‘Surgeons’ in 1939. A talented student, he loved his training which led him to his lifelong career in neuro psychiatry.” n Mahendra Varma

Our condolences go to all the families and friends of RCSI alumni who have recently passed away.

40

GLOBAL ALUMNI

LABOUR LEADERS

Dedication, and a commitment to lifelong learning, are characteristics shared by many successful alumni. We connect with graduates in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology around the globe …

DR CATHY ALLEN

MEDICINE, 1995 LOCATION: IRELAND Dr Cathy Allen, Consultant Obstetrician Gynaecologist, specialises in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at the National Maternity Hospital and St Michael’s Hospital, and is Deputy Clinical Director at Merrion Fertility Clinic, Dublin. A Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, she is Assistant Clinical Professor, Womens and Children’s Health, UCD School of Medicine.

Dr Allen is a council member of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

After specialist registrar training, in part through the flexible training scheme in Dublin and Cork, Dr Allen subspecialised in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at the Oxford Fertility Unit, a UK referral service for assisted conception techniques.

Her special interest is in minimal access surgery, pregnancy after fertility treatment, and recurring miscarriage.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: “Organising the IOG Jubilee Conference and Celebrations in 2018, which was dedicated to the memory of Dr Maura Lynch, FRCSI, a champion of obstetric fistula repair in Uganda with whom I had the honour of working in 2017.” (See page 30: Dr Maura Lynch features in the Women on Walls series of portraits commissioned by RCSI.)

DR DOUGLAS COCHEN

MEDICINE, 1991 LOCATION: CANADA After Dr Douglas Cochen completed undergraduate studies at Queen’s University at Kingston, receiving a BA in Life Science, he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at RCSI Dublin and completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Ottawa in 1997. He did a Gynaecology Surgery Fellowship at the University of Ottawa before going into practice full-time at Queensway Carleton Hospital. Dr Cochen is a lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Ottawa. He served as President of the Medical Staff at Queensway Carleton Hospital from 2007-2009 and in 2014 became the inaugural Chief Medical Information Officer of the hospital. Dr Cochen is focused on the use of technology to improve patient care. He participated in a pilot project with BORN Ontario to adapt the Ontario Antenatal record to the electronic environment and volunteered as a member of the Enhanced Ontario Antenatal Record Work Group of the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health.

DR IBRAHIM ELRAHMAN

MEDICINE, 1991 LOCATION: UAE Dr Ibrahim Elrahman, Consultant Gynaecologist and Assistant Professor of Gynaecology at the Mohamed Bin Rashid University, is a recognised specialist in Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery, Urogynaecology and Pelvic Floor Surgery, and has lectured at many international meetings. His special interests include advanced minimal access surgery focusing on endometriosis and fibroid management and ovarian pathology, He is also accredited in colposcopy.

After graduation from RCSI he trained exclusively in the UK, undertaking oncology training at the Royal Marsden and Hammersmith Hospital, and became a consultant in 2005, prior to moving to Dubai in 2008. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and holds professional memberships with the British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Cytopathology (BSCCP), the General Medical Council (UK) and the British and European Societies for Gynaecological Endoscopic Surgery and the Middle East Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy (MESGE). CAREER HIGHLIGHT: One highlight was presenting at the European Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology of the first case of total endoscopic repair of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome with a three-year follow-up. Another was being appointed Assistant Professor of Gynaecology at Mohamed Bin Rashid University in Dubai. “RCSI is my alma mater and my training there has laid the foundation for whatever success I have had in my career.”

41

GLOBAL ALUMNI

DR TILOTTAMA NANDY

MEDICINE, 2002 LOCATION: UK After obtaining her medical degree at RCSI Dublin and after an internship at James Connolly Memorial Hospital and another year in emergency medicine, Dr Tilottama Nandy committed to specialty training in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2004.

Training in Ireland afforded excellent exposure to highvolume obstetrics and gynaecology. She has been certified as a BSCCP-accredited colposcopist since 2009, and has undertaken two years of clinical fellowship in Reproductive Medicine, in Dublin and London. Dr Nandy has practiced in the NHS in the UK since 2011, and her current scope of practice as a Locum Consultant at the Whittington Hospital in London spans general obstetrics and gynaecology, with dedicated special-interest sessions in vulval disease, colposcopy, out-patient hysteroscopy and rapid access gynae-oncology. Dr Nandy is a member of the RCOG, RCPI, BSCCP, and BSGE.

DR THORBJORN BROOK STEEN

MEDICINE, 2001 LOCATION: NORWAY Dr Thorbjorn Brook Steen is a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval. His main interest is being on the labour ward “where the action is”, complementing his experience at The Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Dr Steen is responsible for the psychosocial health of the pregnant women in his hospital with a special focus on women with psychiatric comorbidity or drug addiction.

Dr Steen published his first book in 2018. “New Life, Everything You Need to Know About Pregnancy, Birth and the Postnatal Period” which received highly positive reviews. He is currently writing his second book “Help, I᾿m Having a Baby”, aimed at women with anxiety about pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. He is active in the media, has his own blog and has been a guest on numerous podcasts and TV shows. Dr Steen is the author and co-author of five chapters in the Norwegian national guidelines for obstetrics. He is also a teacher at Oslo midwifery school and frequently lectures at conferences, mainly on acute obstetrics and tokophobia.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: “Being the head author of the Guidelines of Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health in Norway.”

42

DR THINAGRIN NAIDOO

MEDICINE, 1994 LOCATION: SOUTH AFRICA Dr Thinagrin Naidoo returned to South Africa after his graduation in 1994 and pursued a career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He obtained his Fellowship from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa in 2001. This was followed by a Fellowship in Minimal Access Surgery, and a PhD in Urogynaecology. He currently serves as Consultant and Head of Clinical Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Greys Hospital Pietermaritzburg, and Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Dr Naidoo spends much of his time teaching medical undergraduates, post-graduates and midwives. His passion for mentoring and training has led to the department producing many obstetricians and gynaecologists who have gone on to practice in South Africa and Africa. He also serves as an examiner with the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He currently is a board member of the South African Uro-Gynae Association, a member of the South African Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the International Uro-Gynae Association and the World association of Laparoscopic Surgeons. His clinical work and research interests include Gynaecology Endoscopy and Uro-gynaecology, with particular interest in fistula surgery and anal incontinence.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: While there have been a few, one that stands out is working with and learning from a ‘special group of people’ at Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia.

DR SWEE QUEK

MEDICINE, 1989 LOCATION: SINGAPORE Dr Swee Chong Quek is a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the ASC Clinic for Women in Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore.

He was formerly the Head of Pre-Invasive Disease and Screening Unit, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and previously served on the board of the International Federation of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. A former President of the Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology of Singapore, he now sits on the present council.

After undergraduate medical training at RCSI, Dublin, Dr Quek worked as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in London for several years, including three as a clinical research fellow. He has been working in Singapore since 2000 and was on the faculty of the Yong Loo Lin Medical School and the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. He lectures extensively on cervical cancer prevention. Dr Quek trains doctors and healthcare workers, volunteering his services to the International Agency for Research into Cancer for World Health Organization (IARC, WHO) to train doctors in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Africa and India. In 2009 he founded and continues to lead the Himalayan Women’s Health Project, providing healthcare, screening and treatment particularly for cervical cancer in the northern Himalayas, Ladakh, northern India.

His research work includes real-time detection of cervical cancer and pre-cancer PAP smear screening, HPV testing, and was involved in the clinical trials for HPV vaccines for the prevention of HPV related cancers. He has authored several books and is working on another on cervical cancer prevention.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: “What gives me the most satisfaction is the work that I do with the Himalayan Women’s Health Project, screening for and preventing cervical cancer in these communities. This disease is almost completely preventable and we are privileged to be able to help in this way.” ■

€615,000

Over the past 12 months RCSI Alumni and friends donated €615,000 to support the RCSI_TOMORROW campaign.

THANKS TO ALUMNI

62

STUDENTS HAD UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES CLINICAL ELECTIVES

25 13

students were given the opportunity to enrich their training by gaining valuable experience in teaching hospitals worldwide.

RESEARCH SUMMER SCHOOL students were able to participate in the summer school which provides the opportunity to work alongside Principal Investigators and gain truly valuable experience in a clinical and laboratory setting.

SCHOLARSHIPS

19

students were awarded scholarships in 2018. Our range of scholarships offer support to students who excel academically and are passionate about developing a lifelong career in medicine.

STUDENT HARDSHIP

This fund is a much needed life-line for students who find themselves in unforeseen financial difficulty during their studies. Gifts from alumni over the last year have ensured that these students have been able to continue their studies at RCSI.

And there’s more… Alumni have made donations to support 26 York Street; RCSI’s new state-of-the-art medical education building which provides an exceptional training environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students that go on to practice across 97 countries.

If you would like to support students as part of the RCSI_TOMORROW campaign you can do so by visiting donate.rcsi.ie If you are a donor from the USA visit friendsofrcsi.com.

OR call Paul in the Alumni Office on +353 (0) 1 402 2729, he would be delighted to hear from you.

EVENTS

REUNIONS

Olav Hopland (Medicine, 2008), Vicktor Krohn (Medicine, 2008), Mona Jasuja (Medicine, 2008) and Aaron Jolly (Medicine, 2009)

Cathy Tennyson and Parnell Keeling (Medicine, 2003, FRCSI 2014)

Faces of RCSI Panel: Moira O’Brien (Medicine, 1956), Jim Sherlock, former Head Porter, RCSI and Liz Doyle, former Student Welfare Officer, RCSI

ALUMNI GATHERING 2018

Medicine, 1978: Brian Tedders, Koon Teo and Edmond Flaherty

Scientific Meeting Tour

More than 400 alumni spanning six decades were welcomed back to RCSI in August 2018 for the annual RCSI Alumni Gathering weekend. Alumni from Classes of 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008 participated in a vibrant programme of social and academic activities, re-establishing connections and reminiscing with former classmates and lecturers.

There was a large and diverse cohort of graduates from 24 countries including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and USA, highlighting the global reach of RCSI’s graduate community.

At the gala dinner in Dublin’s Mansion House, Dr Helen Towers (Medicine, 1983) was awarded the Association of Medical & Dental Graduates’ Distinguished Graduate Award for her outstanding contribution to the improvement of healthcare.

Medicine, 1998: Graham Roche Nagle and John Sheehan

Medicine, 1968: Luiting Goon, Sarah Rogers, Sheila MacEvilly and Kamalamma Naidoo

Medicine, 1973: Ciaran O’Shea, Stephen Tucker and Patrick Lanigan

Medicine, 1988

44

David Brown (Medicine, 1958), Oliver Hunter (Medicine, 1958), Marie Hunter, John McGlade (Medicine, 1958), Jacqueline McGlade, John Fitzgerald (Medicine, 1958), Susilkumar Chowdhury (Medicine, 1963, FRCSI 1969) and Bebs Chowdhury

EVENTS

REUNIONS

Gursharn Rakhra (Medicine, 1988) and Dorothy Rakhra

Medicine, 1998: Niamh O’Carroll and Patrik Velander

Medicine, 1993 SAVE THE DATE

Medicine, 2008: Maud Bergesen, Ryan Davey, Hani Malik, David Woodlock and Lilan Ellingson

Helen Towers (Medicine, 1983) and Walter Weiss (Medicine, 1985)

Welcome Reception

Gerry Dowdall (Medicine, 1978), Charles Reisen (Medicine, 1978), Donna Hansen, Jack Mancus (Medicine, 1978) and Andrea Mancus

Dentistry, 1968: Jerry O’Sullivan, Alfred Butler and Sten Mathews

The Alumni Gathering 2019 will take place in RCSI Dublin from 22 - 24 August.

This comprehensive three-day programme of activities includes a Jubilee Lunch; welcome reception; scientific meeting; alumni memorial service; tours of the College and of Dublin; reunion class dinners; golf outing; and a black tie gala dinner. rcsi.ie/alumnievents

Medicine, 1968: Michael BentleyTaylor and Gareth Jones

Medicine, 1998: Catherine Ling and Teck Leong Tai

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

45

EVENTS

RECEPTIONS

Brian Harvey, Sarah O’Neill, Senior Lecturer, Molecular & Cellular Therapeutics, RCSI, Gianpiero Cavalleri, Associate Professor in Human Genetics & Deputy Head of the School of Postgraduate Studies, RCSI and Aidan Bradford, Professor, Physiology and Medical Physics, RCSI BRIAN HARVEY

After 16 years at RCSI, Professor Brian Harvey retired from the College in October 2018. Professor Harvey was Professor and Head of the Department of Molecular Medicine 2002-2018 and Director of the RCSI Research Institute 2004-2012. One 2012 postgraduate described him as “a true gentleman, passionate about academia. I wouldn’t have achieved my PhD without him.”

Mary Leader (Medicine, 1976) and James Paul O’Neill (Medicine, 2001, FRCSI 2010) MARY LEADER

Mary Leader (Medicine, 1976) with her daughter, Elizabeth Keeling (Medicine, 2015) and husband, Frank Keeling (Medicine, 1977)

FAREWELL RECEPTIONS In the past year at RCSI, we bid a fond farewell to these well-known and long-serving Faculty …

Marie Guidon with staff of the School of Physiotherapy

Professor Mary Leader (Medicine, 1976), Professor of Pathology, retired in July 2018 after over 30 years of service to RCSI. In the words of a member of the Class of 2009, “Professor Leader was an inspiration in College. A truly unique and dedicated lecturer and a strong woman to look up to … we were lucky to have you as part of our education.”

Clive Lee (FRCSI 1989) and Tom Farrell TOM FARRELL

MARIE GUIDON

Paul Hurley, Marketing Manager, RCSI, Paul Gallagher and Oluwafunmito Ifeoluwa Jatto (Pharmacy, 2013) PAUL GALLAGHER

Professor Paul Gallagher, Head of the RCSI School of Pharmacy, has taken an extended leave of absence from RCSI to take up a prestigious role as Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Here’s what one graduate from 2011 had to say on his departure: “Professor Gallagher taught me about pharmacy law and business but more importantly he taught me about what it is to be a health professional. He laid the foundations from which I built my career and for which I will be forever grateful.”

Professor Marie Guidon, Foundation Head of the RCSI School of Physiotherapy, departed RCSI in August 2018. Professor Guidon will be remembered for her significant contribution to the School of Physiotherapy and to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences over the past 20 years.

A 2005 graduate said: “I have always had the utmost respect and admiration for Professor Guidon. She is a leader with poise and presence and epitomises everything one aspires to achieve and contribute to one’s career.”

A well-known face of RCSI, with his famously deadpan smile, Dr Tom Farrell, Department of Anatomy, retired in May 2018 after more than 20 years at the College. A Class of 2012 graduate summed him up: “Dr Farrell is a character, an excellent teacher and an inspiration. He is able to teach with humour, practicality and a little smidgen of fear.”

ELAINE KAY

Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, RCSI, Elaine Kay and Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI

In February 2019, Professor Elaine Kay, Department of Pathology, RCSI retired after 28 years at RCSI. She is described by a member of the Class of 2002 as “a phenomenal pathologist and teacher who was completely unaware of how impressed all of us were by her intelligence and knowledge.”

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

46

EVENTS

THE FOLEY LECTURE

Carol Dweck and Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, RCSI

Kevin Thornton (Physiotherapy, 2009), Marion Slattery and Andrew Dunne (Physiotherapy, 2012)

RCSI FOLEY LECTURE

Family of the late Michael Foley (Medicine, 1950)

Blánaid Hayes (MD 2016), Sarah Early (MD 2008, FRCSI 2012), Gozie Offiah (Medicine, 2005, MD 2011), and Shirley Potter (FRCSI 2015)

Aoife Keeling (Medicine, 1999), Ingrid Browne (Medicine, 1992), Cathy Allen (Medicine, 1995) and Aisling Dwyer

Professor Carol S. Dweck, Stanford University Psychology Professor and author of the bestselling Mindset delivered the third annual RCSI Foley Lecture, “Medical Minds: Growth for Healthcare Professionals” at RCSI Dublin in September 2018.

Professor Dweck, the world-recognised pioneer of the “growth mindset” – the concept that abilities and intelligence are not fixed but can be developed and expanded – explained how cultivating a growth mindset is crucial in education, and focused on its application for the education of medical and other healthcare professionals in her talk. The RCSI Foley Lecture is a biannual lecture supported by a bequest from Dr Michael Foley, a graduate of the Class of 1950. Its purpose is to feature eminent individuals globally renowned as educators, leaders and pioneers to enrich RCSI’s extensive community of healthcare professionals.

Carol Dweck Foley Lecture 2018

Michael Gannon (FRCSI 1983), Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI (Medicine, 1985, FRCSI 1990) and Fergal Malone, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, RCSI

Crona Gallagher (Medicine, 1996, MRCSI 1999) Margaret O’Donnell, Council Member, RCSI (FRCSI 1988), Brian Kneafsey (FRCSI 1990) and Ingrid Browne (Medicine, 1992)

Muirin Tempany (Medicine, 1994, FRCSI 2000) and Ciara O’Shea (Medicine, 1993)

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

47

EVENTS

IN CONVERSATION WITH ...

Aíne Gibbons, Director, Development - Alumni Relations, Fellows & Members, RCSI, Hedy Fry (Medicine, 1968), Ciara Kelly and Kenneth Mealy, President, RCSI

DR HEDY FRY In conversation with … Dr Hedy Fry, Class of 1968

Allyson Coopersmith and Samuel Cory (both 2nd Year, Graduate Entry Medicine, RCSI)

Medicine, 1968: Gareth Jones, Sarah Rogers, Hedy Fry, Patrick Walls and Sten Mathews

Kate Ní Argáin (Medicine, 2007), Lisa McLoughlin (Medicine, 2005), Marcel Klein, Stephen Farrell (Medicine, 2005) and Seamus Duffy (Medicine, 2005)

Dr Hedy Fry, Class of 1968, returned to RCSI Dublin in February 2019 to address students, alumni and guests at an event that marked the opening of the RCSI Charter Day programme. The Honourable Dr Fry is a Trinidadian-Canadian politician and physician and the longest-serving female Member of Parliament, having won eight consecutive elections in the constituency of Vancouver Centre.

Taking to the stage with Dr Ciara Kelly, Irish GP and broadcaster, Dr Fry, daughter of a tailor and secretary (who brags that she can still dance in eight-inch heels) shared her story of growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, making the decision to come to RCSI thanks to nuns, Shakespeare and her parents’ life savings, and how she broke the glass ceiling to become one of Canada’s most prolific politicians.

Aideen Hogan, Maeve Peyton (Medicine, 1969), Yvonne Galligan and Irene Gallagher

WATCH OUR VIDEOS

Visit the RCSI Alumni YouTube Channel to watch the highlights from this event and many more

Hedy Fry (Medicine, 1968) and Adanna Steinacker (Medicine, 2015)

Patrick Treacy (Medicine, 1985), Kenneth Mealy, President, RCSI and Ronan O’Connell, Vice-President, RCSI

Hedy Fry (Medicine, 1968)

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

48

EVENTS

RECEPTIONS Michael Spedick and David Knight (Medicine, 1981)

Laura Viani, Council Member, RCSI (FRCSI 1987), Deborah McNamara, Council Member, RCSI (FRCSI 1997), Emer O’Connell (MRCSI 2016) and Cliona O’Farrelly

Ian Maxwell (Medicine, 1989), Richard Tanner, Emer O’Connell (MRCSI 2016) and Margaret Maxwell

William Joyce (FRCSI 1985) and Ali Zaki (FRCSI 1985, MSc 2013)

RCSI BOSTON As part of the ACS Clinical Congress 2018, Mr Kenneth Mealy, President, RCSI, welcomed alumni and surgeons to a reception in Boston in October 2018.

A convivial evening of networking – and mini class reunions!

Christine Whyte (FRCSI 1991), Camilla Carroll, Council Member, RCSI (Medicine, 1985, FRCSI 1989) and Fletcher Starnes

Trevor McGill (FRCSI 1972) and Thomas Walsh (FRCSI 1981)

PHOTOS: OLLIE O’FLANAGAN

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH OUR EVENTS rcsi.ie/alumnievents

Wissam Raad (Medicine, 2004, FRCSI 2017), Mohammed Al-Zoubaidi (Medicine, 2004, MRCSI 2006) and Nicolas Mouawad (Medicine, 2005, FRCSI 2018)

RCSI Sherlock Cup - Student Team 2018

RCSI SHERLOCK CUP 2018

Thomas Heggelund (Medicine, 2001) holds off the challenge of Mohammad Al Hazmi (Final Med) as San Kim (4th Med) looks on

The annual clash between the students and graduates of RCSI Soccer Club, the Sherlock Cup, took place in October 2018, with the graduates triumphant at the final whistle with a score of 3-2.

RCSI Sherlock Cup – Graduates Team 2018

JOIN THE TEAM

Email alumni@rcsi.ie if you would like to join the graduates’ team!

Winning graduates’ captain and Man of the Match, Thomas Heggelund (Medicine, 2001) pictured with Jim Sherlock and Mark Rogan (Medicine, 1996, MD 2006)

Ronan Kearney (Medicine, 2013) goes close for the grads in a goalmouth scramble

RCSI graduates and Jim Sherlock watch as Fionn Lynch (Medicine, 2018) and Eoin Lombard (1st Year Physiotherapy) battle for possession

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

49

EVENTS

RECEPTIONS

Aíne Gibbons, Director, Development – Alumni Relations, Fellows & Members, RCSI and Asma Al Najjar (Nursing 2010 - RCSI Bahrain)

Declan Gaynor, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, RCSI Bahrain, Isa Alalwani (Medicine, 2013, MRCSI 2018) and Ameer Alarayedh (Medicine, 2013, MRCSI 2016)

RCSI BAHRAIN The annual RCSI Bahrain Alumni Reception on campus attracted over 70 attendees, representing graduates from RCSI Dublin, Bahrain and Dubai.

During the Reception, alumni of RCSI Bahrain’s first graduating cohort of 2010 were unveiled as the inaugural recipients of RCSI Bahrain Alumni Inspiring Excellence Portraits.

Ms Asma Al Najjar, Ms Eman Aljahmi (both School of Nursing & Midwifery) and Dr Aymen Bukannan (Medicine) were selected by the panel as being distinguished graduates and offering inspiration to current students and visitors to the University.

Marwa Al Baharna (Medicine, 2012 - RCSI Bahrain), Eman Al Salman (Medicine, 2011 -RCSI Bahrain) and Fathima Nasmy (Medicine, 2012 - RCSI Bahrain)

Hamad Abdulla (BSc, 2015 - RCSI Bahrain), Hani Malik (Medicine, 2008, PG Dip 2018) and Nazia Alamri (BSc 2014 - RCSI Bahrain)

Eman Aljahmi (Nursing 2010, MSc 2018 - RCSI Bahrain), Joe McMenamin, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, RCSI Bahrain, Kenneth Mealy, President, RCSI, Asma Al Najjar (Nursing 2010 - RCSI Bahrain) and Fadi Ghosn, Recognition, Careers and Alumni Manager, RCSI Bahrain

Reem Sisan and Ghaith Qsous (MRCSI 2017)

Medicine, 2018 - RCSI Bahrain: Mohamed Toorani amd Ali Marzuk

Sara Alabadla (Medicine, 2018 - RCSI Bahrain), Manuel Bakheet (Medicine, 2018 - RCSI Bahrain), Ali Marzuk (Medicine, 2018 - RCSI Bahrain), Danah Chakfeh (Medicine, 2018 - RCSI Bahrain) and Jacinta Morgan, Chair and Professor, Department of Medicine, RCSI Bahrain

Professor Thomas Lynch, Council Member RCSI, FRCSI 1988, Eman Aljahmi (Nursing 2010, MSc 2018 - RCSI Bahrain) and Maura Pidgeon, Associate Professor in Nursing & Director for Masters in Nursing, RCSI Bahrain

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

50

EVENTS

RECEPTIONS

Jacinta West (Medicine, 1989) and Harriet Ryan (Medicine, 2014)

Medicine, 2014: Jane Buckley, Adanna Welch Philips and Ciara Nolan Medicine, 2015: Eanna O’Sullivan and Owen Feely

ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL & DENTAL GRADUATES’ ANNUAL DINNER

Zahra Shah (Medicine, 2015), Corentin Pasco and Chloe Gleeson (Medicine, 2015)

Karen Flood (Medicine, 2001, MD 2011), John Clinton and Patrick Corry

The fires of the Boardroom were lit once again in November 2018 to welcome more than 165 RCSI alumni and guests for the Annual Dinner of the Association of Medical and Dental Graduates.

Dr Antonia Lehane (Medicine 1982), President of the Association, greeted everyone “most of all as friends”. She commented, “We had graduates from every decade spanning 50 years, contributing to a great buzz and fun atmosphere throughout the evening.”

Following the festive dinner, Professor Ronan O’Connell, Vice-President, RCSI, proposed the toast to the Association and spot prizes were won by every table.

A sold-out event again this year ... please remember to book early next year.

SAVE THE DATE

The 2019 Dinner will take place at RCSI Dublin on 23 November. rcsi.ie/alumnievents

Medicine, 2014: Aine McCarthy and Tippa Wade

Patrice Murphy (Medicine, 1980) and Richard Staveley

Medicine, 1987: Eamonn Kenny and Erika Keane Medicine, Class of 2006

Padraig McGarry (Medicine, 1982), Sonniva Doyle and Damien Doyle (Medicine, 1982) Una Dineen and Michael O’Gorman (Medicine, 2006)

Michael Flanagan (Medicine, 2014, MRCSI 2016), Harriet Ryan (Medicine, 2014), Eoin Kelleher (Medicine, 2014) and Dearbhla Kelly #RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

51

EVENTS

CONFERRINGS

DUBLIN

Amalina Ismail (Medicine, 2018)

Medicine, 2018: Martin Davey, Tom Gleeson and Sam McDonald

Danyal Khan (Medicine, 2018)

Donal Keogan (PhD 2018), Meath GAA senior footballer

CLASS OF 2018 In 2018, we welcomed more than 1,800 new graduates to RCSI’s global network of 19,000 alumni in 97 countries worldwide. Across campuses in Ireland, Bahrain, Malaysia and Dubai, graduates were conferred with degrees in medicine, physiotherapy, pharmacy, nursing and midwifery, and with higher degrees, ranging from masters to PhDs in both Leadership and Healthcare Management.

In addition, last year, RCSI conferred 352 surgical Fellowships (FRCSI) and Memberships (MRCSI) at five ceremonies held in Ireland, Bahrain and Malaysia.

Honorary Doctorate recipient Barbara Murphy (Medicine, 1989) pictured centre with Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive, RCSI (Medicine, 1985, FRCSI 1990); Hannah McGee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, RCSI; and immediate Past-President RCSI, John Hyland

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH OUR EVENTS rcsi.ie/alumnievents

Medicine, 2018: Twin sisters, Kineta and Kamesha Valoo

Medicine, 2018: Katie Dunleavy and Tololupe Ola

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

52

CONFERRINGS

DUBLIN

EVENTS

Geraldine McDermott (MSc 2018)

Mohammad Alazemi (Medicine, 2018, MSc 2018)

Hazel Hendrick and Cliona O’Sullivan (MPharm 2018)

Brendan Kavanagh, Associate Professor of Human Biology, RCSI, Nicola Kavanagh (PhD 2018) and Geraldine Kavanagh

Nick Lahart (Pharmacy, 2018)

Pharmacy, Class of 2018

Brian Harraghy and James McGuirk (MPharm 2018)

Carmen Creighton, Eleanor Creighton (Physiotherapy, 2018) and Deirdre Creighton

Nursing, 2017: Subhashini Munuswamy, Lauren Dixon, Maura Sweeney and Maebh Keeley Eleanor Forde, Hannah Forde (PhD 2018) and Michael Forde

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

53

EVENTS

CONFERRINGS

DUBLIN

Ciaran Stanley (Medicine, 2015, MRCSI 2018) Theresa Frawley, Dean, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, RCSI and Damien McCrory (PG Dip 2018) recipient of the Mary Frances Crowley Award Wissam Raad (Medicine, 2004, MRCSI 2007, FRCSI 2018)

Nassreen Abdullah (Medicine, 2015, MRCSI 2018)

Laoise Coady (Medicine, 2015, MRCSI 2018)

DUBAI

Fatima Mohamed Mohamoud (MSc 2018 RCSI Dubai)

RaďŹ k Karkout (MSc 2018 RCSI Dubai)

Asma Hamed Al Nababteh and Noora Ali Ahmed Obaid Al-Ali (both MSc 2018 - RCSI Dubai)

Inspiring Excellence portrait honouree, Amer Ahmad Sharif (MSc 2007 - RCSI Dubai)

MSc 2018 - RCSI Dubai: Yuser Sulieman Abedelmonem Hamad, Wafa Salah Mohamed and Ranya Hassan Aldhanhani Kenneth Mealy, President, RCSI unveiling the 2018 Inspiring Excellence portrait of Amer Ahmad Sharif (MSc 2007 - RCSI Dubai)

RCSI Dubai Conferring 2017

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

54

EVENTS

CONFERRINGS

BAHRAIN

Nursing and Midwifery, 2018

Medicine, 2018: Mohamed Soliman and Sara Qusous

Medicine, 2018

Medicine, 2018 Hassan Alchaoush (Nursing and Midwifery, 2018)

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH OUR EVENTS

Nursing and Midwifery, 2018

rcsi.ie/alumnievents

MALAYSIA PMC

MALAYSIA PU-RCSI*

Medicine, 2018: Nurul Fadhilah Binti Mohd Nordin, Siti Nurhidayah Binti Abdul Kadir

Medicine, 2018: Chew Jen Pin, Liew Mei Rin, Lee Xiao Ying PU-RCSI Conferring 2018

Medicine, 2018: Muhamad Azim Bin Mohd Sahari, Ambika Nair A/P Prabhaharan, Ong Zhi Miin, Kanendra Kumar Balaeswaran, Andrew Rohan Richards

Medicine, 2018: Nur Liyana Binti Mohd Sabri, Suri Akmar Binti Sukri, Nadiah Nadhirah Binti Ramli, Nur Farahim Binti Daud

PU-RCSI Conferring 2018

PU-RCSI Conferring 2018

Medicine, 2018: Ahmad Fawwaz Rasydan Bin Johari, Liew Mei Rin, Chew Jen Pin, Muhammad Farid Bin Ibrahim

Medicine, 2018: Chuah Su Wen, Abdullah Aiman Bin Mohamed Amiruddin, Chua Kai Yin

PU-RCSI Conferring 2018 *Now called RUMC: RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

55

EVENTS

RECEPTIONS Tore and Laila Farnes (Medicine, 1981)

Ciara O’Shea (Medicine, 1993), Illona Duffy (Medicine, 1993), Shiobhan Weston (Medicine, 1992) and Kevin Byrne.

HOUSE OF LORDS Niall Hogan (Medicine, 1995, FRCSI 2005) and Holly Hogan Lord Ara Darzi (Medicine, 1984, FRCSI 1990)

Alumni, Fellows & Members gathered for an evening reception at the House of Lords, London on Valentine’s Day weekend in February 2019. The event was kindly hosted

by The Rt Hon the Lord Darzi of Denham OM KBE PC FRS (Medicine, 1984, FRCSI 1990).

Such was the popularity of the event, it booked out in three hours! An immensely enjoyable evening for all.

Patrick Troy (Medicine, 1986) and James Troy

Niamh Dodd (Medicine, 1998), Audrey Lee (Medicine, 1999) and Jonathan O’Keefe (Medicine, 1998)

RCSI House of Lords Reception Khalid Albogami (Medicine, 2017), Aaron Loh (Medicine, 2018), Danyal Khan (Medicine, 2018) and Muhammad Shazil Jamal (Medicine, 2018)

James Paul O’Neill (Medicine, 2001, MD 2009, FRCSI 2010), Camilla Carroll, Council Member, RCSI (Medicine, 1985, FRCSI 1989) and Rory McConn Walsh (FRCSI 2013)

Hugh O’Neill (Medicine, 1967) and Jane O’Neill

Angela and John Doherty (Medicine, 1971)

Christopher Mascott and Eugenie Donnelly (BSc 2012, MSc 2015)

Medicine, 1987: Colm Killeen, Siobhan Tempany, Sara Gallagher, Anthony McCarthy and Erika Keane

Rachel O’Farrell (Medicine, 1994) and Illona Duffy (Medicine, 1993)

Olujide Alde and Anthony O’Shea (MPharm 2015)

Darren Lui (Medicine, 2001, MCh 2008, FRCSI 2013) and Sharon Tiernan

Edward Flood and Bernadette Flood (MSc 2007)

#RCSIALUMNI CONNECT WITH US ON INSTAGRAM (@RCSIALUMNI) AND FACEBOOK (RCSI ALUMNI) FOR THE LATEST NEWS

56

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

What do you want for the future of RCSI? Leaving a legacy to RCSI, after providing for your family and friends, is the highest honour alumni can bestow on the College. For many who have done so, it was their way of remembering their time at the College and the opportunities that it brought them.

Professor David Kennedy, Class of 1972, Chair Emeritus and Professor, University of Pennsylvania - “RCSI gave me the opportunity, training and support to pursue an exciting career in academic medicine, something for which I am truly grateful every day. The evolution of the College has been remarkable and I am delighted to be able to give back, particularly for the opportunity that they provided me, but also for future graduates who will make contributions to medicine around the globe.”

Your gift can create opportunities too.

If you would like further information on legacy gifts you can call Aíne Gibbons on +353 1 402 8548 or email ainegibbons@rcsi.ie. If you would like to come and meet in person, Aíne would be delighted to talk to you.

ONLINE LEARNING Anytime. Anywhere.

Support your career development with our online learning, which offers interactive modules that can be accessed at a time and place to suit you.

• Free to all members • Interactive content produced for doctors by doctors • Track your learning and download certificates in your personal account • Accessible via desktop, tablet and mobile 24/7

Register now and start your online learning today VISIT

The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 36142 at Level 19, The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG. MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association. MPS® and Medical Protection® are registered trademarks.

9115:05/19

prism.medicalprotection.org